PREFACE

 

 

The research group Philosophy and information policy of IBICT is pleased to publish another issue of its journal Logeion - Philosophy of information. It is never too much to point out that it is a journal with a humanistic approach within the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil.

The Logeion journal wants to offer space for interaction among researchers, teachers, students and other interested in the Philosophy of information. Writing, publishing and reading is part of the discussion that gives meaning to concepts, theories, criticisms and arguments. Thus, the very territory of what is Philosophy of information is defined.

Our work opens this territory for epistemology and aesthetics, but also for practical philosophy: ethics and politics. We want mainly to foment the criticism in Information Science, with its functionalist and systemic limits.

This issue of the journal opens with the article "Social Protagonism and Mediation of Information", by Henriette Ferreira Gomes, professor at Federal University of Bahia. The author argues that informational work aims at social protagonism and that mediation of information is its central action.

The UFBA professor presents the results of critical studies in Information Science related to the protagonism and mediation of information, as well as studies of thinkers that address the social and political aspects of communication and the formation of socially active subjects. The author concludes that the development of protagonism is the main responsibility of the work with information.

The article "The Law on Access to Information and Institutional Consolidation of the Federal Public Ministry in Brazil", by Edna Gusmão de Góes Brennand and Alexsander de Carvalho Silva, from Federal University of Paraiba, analyzes the Federal Public Ministry development in defense of the legal order and the interests of society. The authors focus on the violation of human rights.

Ronald E. Day, of Indiana University, presents "Right wing populism, information and knowledge". The author makes a fundamental discussion for contemporary society: if the distinction of technologies between old and new media makes fascism an impossibility. Day points out that through new information and communication technologies, the political 'mass' is supposedly replaced by 'multitude' and new media serve the individual 'information needs'.

However, what emerges is the sophisticated forms of dissemination of fake information and massive shots to segmented social groups. The "Leave" campaign in the plebiscite on England's stay in the European Community and Donald Trump's campaign for US President are marks of this change. Jair Bolsonaro's campaign for President of Brazil is also in the process.

Day states that political populism and the invasion of fascism are global phenomena, particularly in developed countries. We know they are also present in Latin America. The American researcher believes that this happens not only in spite of the new media, but partly because of them. Your article makes a compelling inquiry: How is this possible?

Luciana Gracioso, professor at Federal University of São Carlos, writes about "The Origin of Human Knowledge in the Context of Information Studies." The author notes that historically information studies are directly related to language studies, at this intersection.

The author seeks to identify ways in which informational studies can be used to think about the relationship between language and the mediation of knowledge. Her essay investigates the place of language in Étienne Bonnot de Condillac's Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (1746). She concludes that Condillac can contribute to distinguish language, knowledge and use of information.

Giulia Crippa, professor at Bologna Univeristy, writes "Knowledge for what? Transformations of the order of knowledge in time." In her article, she discusses, within Information Science, how knowledge is guided by its aims. The author uses the genealogical perspective, observing how the information records are guided by the assigned purpose to knowledge.

The professor wants to make us understand how the scientific organization of knowledge is structured. In her article she observes the changes that have taken place between a system of knowledge based on libraries and another linked to Information and Communication Technologies. It also analyzes aspects of the organization of knowledge in libraries in modernity, highlighting constituent elements of the reliability of records.

Marcos Luiz Cavalcanti de Miranda and Fábio Gomes da Silva, from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UNIRIO, present the article "Peripheral religion and culture: the representation of Islam in Dewey's Decimal Classification." The article analyzes the representation of information referring to the identity of Islamic religion in the scheme of classification more used in the world.

The authors investigate the existence of deviations in the representation of subjects related to "peripheral" cultures in the 23rd. edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification (CDD). The results of the study of the representation of Islam in CDD23 demonstrated the existence of historical representational deviations. This is evidenced both in terminological selection and in its conceptual structure.

The authors point out that the bias in the organization of knowledge makes invisible the documents concerning the culture and identity of "peripheral" social groups. They conclude on the ethical-political aspects of information work, particularly the professional in classifying subjects that they call " not aligned with Western culture. "

Arthur Walber Viana and Valdir José Morigi, from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, present the article "The inscriptions of themselves from the street population in the newspaper Boca de rua." The authors question how the street population, who are the creative subjects behind the texts, use the relative freedom to "define themselves."

The authors make a study of what dwellers and street dwellers do in the texts; what language do they use; with whom and with what they relate. They conclude that despite the syntactic, socio-political or economic limits, there is in the Boca de Rua newspaper the sincere and profound expression of the difficulties that crush the precarious lives.

"Autopoiesis on the Autopoiesis of Literary Narrative", by Guilherme Preger, proposes a speculative reflection on literary narrative as a social autopoietic subsystem. The author works as Niklas Luhmann's concept of autopoiesis (autopoiesis). Literary narrative can be described as a form of social communication and "second-order observation".

However, literary narrative differs from social narrative as narrative or narrative "self-observation" of narrative. What matters to the literary narrative is not the description of facts, actions or characters, but the relations of narrative levels at the moment of their self-reproduction.

The author proposes a cross between Luhmann's Theory of Systems and the Narratology Theory presented by Gerard Genette. The difference between the narrative level (diegesis) and the level of focus of the story corresponds to the difference between second and first order observation. The author affirms that the resolution of the paradoxes arising in the circularity of the self-observation of the literary system is realized by the formation of "chronotopos", concept of Mikhail Bakhtin: an extension in the time and space of the domain of the imaginary.

Roberto Unger brings us "Brief philosophical study on the elaboration of categories in literature reviews: the perspective of Information Science".

The author makes a conversation between the elaboration of the categories in the construction of literature reviews and the elaboration of the categories. Categorization is used as a means to define which class belongs to a particular concept, considering the intelective effort of synthesis as a cognitive method that gathers and integrates studies. Grouping the knowledge into categories facilitates their ordering and summarization.

The article "Ethical and aesthetic criteria as valid support for research", by Darlei de Paula, seeks to show the aesthetic relation and the ethical value possible to be found in theological text. The author asks if when analyzing the aesthetic behavior, one can consider the results found as intrinsic values that can be compared at different moments. The question that translates your doubt is: How can we consider the ethical and aesthetic values described at different times?

We believe that in this issue of Logeion we offer once again to our authors and readers a small collage of creative, innovative and thought-provoking articles. It is a critical discussion that does not end, but can broaden understanding and provide agreements to better think and do the work with information.

 

 

Rio de Janeiro, March 15, 2019

 

Clóvis Ricardo Montenegro de Lima