For a decade, we have admired the incisive and broadly informed works of Ladislav Tondl on the foundations of science. Now it is indeed a pleasure to include this book among the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. We hope that it will help to deepen the collaborative scholar ship of scientists and philosophers in Czechoslovakia with the English reading scholars of the world. Professor Ladislav Tondl was born in 1924, and completed his higher education at the Charles University (...) iIi Prague. His doctorate was granted by the Institute of Information Theory and Automation. He was a professor and scientific research worker at the Institute for the Theory and Methodology of Science, which was a component part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Tondl's principal fields of interest are the methodology of the empirical and experimental sciences, logical semantics, and cybernetics. For many years, he collaborated with Professor Albert Perez and others at the Institute of Information Theory and Automation in Prague, and he has undertaken fruitful collaboration with logicians in the Soviet and Polish schools, and been influenced by the Finnish logicians as well, among them Jaakko Hintikka. We list below a selection of his main publications. Perhaps the most accessible in presenting his central conception of the relationship between modem information theory and the methodology of the sciences is his 1965 paper with Perez, 'On the Role of Information Theory in Certain Scientific Procedures'. (shrink)

The paper analyses the model as an artefact sui generis establishing the role of semiosis, as a homomorphic representation, as an artefact securing the function of an interface between the author and the receiver. The receiver's ability of accepting the model and its interpretation possibility and/or quality depends on the receiver's competence including the linquistic competence, his knowledge of the represented sphere and the knowledge of the applied sign system and its rules.

The paper emphasizes the role of knowledge dimensions of an action which could be regarded as rational. Rational action usually results of specific decision — making process including selection, evaluation and acceptance of a preferred alternative. This process should integrate not only various types of knowledge but also the interdisciplinary or interdepartmental knowledge integration. The integration of knowledge may cover various forms, especially integration of knowledge relating to different domains, of different quality, of knowledge connected with different goal-orientations. The paper (...) stresses the role of the hitherto known and recognized alternatives. The integration procedures should also include the integration of various spheres and types of knowledge with accepted and justified systems of values. (shrink)

Tento článek z pozůstalosti profesora Ladislava Tondla poukazuje na to, že hodnoty představují neodmyslitelný kontext komunikace a rozhodování. Vychází z předpokladu, že každý komunikační akt se odehrává za jistých okolností a podmínek, ve spojení se zjištěnou problémovou situací a ve vztazích s určitými potřebami a cíli a směry naší činnosti. Součástí těchto podmínek je soubor vlivů a okolností, které lze charakterizovat jako hodnotová atmosféra. Tato atmosféra a s ní spojené faktory mohou modifikovat význam dané komunikace, a to nejen v sémantickém (...) smyslu, ale také ve smyslu relevance, důležitosti a potřebnosti daného sdělení. (shrink)

Studie nabízí přehled různých přístupů k pojmu „znalosti“. Hlavní důraz je kladen na relevanci vybraných a aplikovaných znalostí vzhledem k dané úloze nebo řešené problémové situaci a na kompetenci subjektu znalosti, zejména vzhledem k výběru a integraci různých znalostí. To zahrnuje nejen integraci různých oblastí znalostí, ale také integrací znalostí a hodnot.

The paper analyses the role of alternatives in some important spheres of human creative activities, especially in the domain of cognitive actions conceived as a search for new knowledge alternatives, in the domain of technological creativity conceived as the creation of more perfect artefacts or more perfect alternatives of actual technological solutions of artefacts.

The paper presents the analysis of the philosophical roots of cybernetic thinking and its links to the important scientific trends. The programs launched by cybernetics have justified the accents placed on ‘intentionality’, ‘teleological worlds’, ‘worlds of the artificial’. The founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, emphasized what he called ‘human use’ or ‘human dimensions’ of cybernetics and its applications.

The frequently used term "certainty" plays in the human life an important role, especially in specifying the goals of human activities. The presented study distinguishes two different meanings of this term: the certainty as a state of the mind and the certainty of anything, i.e. the certainty connected with a set of specific conditions. A certainty in the former meaning is usually presented as an important component of some ideologies. As an explanatory model of the certainty of anything, there could (...) be applied the approaches developed in the sphere of intensional or modal logics, especially the concept of epistemic attitudes. The contemporary scientific and technological thinking usually justifies an acceptable model od epistemic attitudes by means of various measures based on the scheme of decreasing uncertainty or, as it is typical for information models, by means of decreasing entropy level. (shrink)

[The metamorphosis of attitudes to science and research].

The new topics in the spheres of science and/or technology policy, i. e. the knowledge management, was influenced by problems connected with great and complicated technological projects. The paper presents the main motives and sources of knowledge management, of qualified use and application of knowledge, especially the selection and integration of adequate data and knowledge, the selection of relevant knowledge sets and their integration.

The essay investigates the possibility of a closer connection of Husserlian phenomenology and that tradition in semiotics of art which originates mainly withSchelling and Goethe. The affinity between semiotically approached tropology and phenomenology is supported if a symbol is conceived not only as an analogy of the designated, but also as its direct grasping. This grasping shows some features of rational contemplation as understood by phenomenology. Modelling symbol as a synthetic trope enables us to proceed to the model of an (...) "artistic situation" as a square generated by a decomposition of the triangle of reference. The complexity of the processes within the "square" results from a fusion of the effects of the linear, natural circuit and the feedback, culturally historical circuit. (shrink)

The presented contribution stresses the role of preference ordering and of the logical culture in many spheres of human rational activities, especially in the domains connected with evaluating and decision-making tasks. Since preference relation is conceived as a relation of proposition-like-entities , any construction of preference ordering pre_- supposes the application of comparability principles. Preference expressions can be considered as a special form of propositional attitudes and the concept of preference itsself as an intensional operator.

Author initiated studies and teaching in semiotics and logical semantics in the fifties. Special conditions led him to work in the sphere of informatics, conputer-aided design and computer graphics. This situation led him to the problems and interpretations of graphic or pictorial communication, graphic, shapes or graphic languages. The graphic communication, especially in the sphere of engineering and design activities, has a special form of a text. The interpretation of this text is started from the master item or master datum (...) and is followed by the interpretation of some detailed data. For the semiotic analysis of such a procedure the application of some informational methods is presented: the application of the concept "informational synonymity" and the use of time factor including the comparison of the interpretation concerning the picture, shape and the traditional data set. This comparison is hased on the transmitted information concepts connected with the time factor. (shrink)

The paper concerns semiotic functions of a conceptual framework, i.e. the system of concepts connected with a specified thematic or problem domain, or, in other words, with a specific semantic space. Conceptual framework plays and important role in specifying the structure of the domain and its specific rules.

The paper concerns semiotic functions of a conceptual framework, i.e. the system of concepts connected with a specified thematic or problem domain, or, in other words, with a specific semantic space. Conceptual framework plays and important role in specifying the structure of the domain and its specific rules.

For a decade, we have admired the incisive and broadly informed works of Ladislav Tondl on the foundations of science. Now it is indeed a pleasure to include this book among the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. We hope that it will help to deepen the collaborative scholar ship of scientists and philosophers in Czechoslovakia with the English reading scholars of the world. Professor Ladislav Tondl was born in 1924, and completed his higher education at the Charles University (...) iIi Prague. His doctorate was granted by the Institute of Information Theory and Automation. He was a professor and scientific research worker at the Institute for the Theory and Methodology of Science, which was a component part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Tondl's principal fields of interest are the methodology of the empirical and experimental sciences, logical semantics, and cybernetics. For many years, he collaborated with Professor Albert Perez and others at the Institute of Information Theory and Automation in Prague, and he has undertaken fruitful collaboration with logicians in the Soviet and Polish schools, and been influenced by the Finnish logicians as well, among them Jaakko Hintikka. We list below a selection of his main publications. Perhaps the most accessible in presenting his central conception of the relationship between modem information theory and the methodology of the sciences is his 1965 paper with Perez, 'On the Role of Information Theory in Certain Scientific Procedures'. (shrink)

The study expresses some personal experiences based on long collaborations and contacts with specialists in engineering or design spheres during more than two decades. These specialists had mostly bad experiences with some opinions or standpoints carried out by the decisions called as political or in the public interests or, as it was usually denoted, in the people’s interests. It was A.M. Weinberg who emphasized that the public frequently cannot know what the best is. The public meaning could be manipulated by (...) means of simple slogans, emotional elements or simplified conceptions concerning the sphere and level of risks. (shrink)

The presented paper substantiates the principle that values are an immanent component of science and any rational cognitive activity. This principle belongs to the European cultural tradition starting from the book of Genesis of the Old Testament, the values of certainty in the antique Greek philosophy and Francis Bacon's coincidence of knowledge and power. Values in science form complicated structures inconnection with different types of knowledge including “the knowledge that”, empirical evidence, various types of generalizations or rules, methods, directions, algorithms, (...) “the knowledge how”, “the knowledge why” or other types of knowledge. Since the assignments of different types of values are the products of a decision-making, it is useful to distinguish many types of decision-making, especially semantic decision-making, information decision-making and decision-making with distinctly pragmatic dimensions. The values assignable to scientific activities and their results also include their social recognition, respect and prestige granted to knowledge and bearers of knowledge by society and social groups or communities. Knowledge generation and the rational and justified application of the achieved and acceptable impacts are also connected with decision-making procedures, values and criteria of social acceptance. (shrink)

The author deems it expedient to single out the specific framework of the following reflections. A considerable portion of human beings who live, move, work and create around us, at least most of those who regard themselves as active members of the human society, view the realm that results from their own aspirations, requirements and preferences, hence the world we can describe as the “teleological world”, as more important than the actual world around them. Nothing is changed in this finding (...) even by the fact that such a teleological world is just an alternative to the world which people know, in which they live, where they pursue their activities and experience their destiny. Moreover, they are convinced – often succumbing to an illusion – that this teleological world is or can be better and more perfect, that it can help them make their wishes and requirements come true and meet their goals. Also many personal and especially social problems are caused by a discordance in the interpretation of what is or what should be the objective of our action, by the profound differences in the notion of what is or what should be a desirable or required state or, generally speaking, by the conflicts of different teleological worlds. The system of notions, objectives and visions of what we call a “teleological world” is not only a product of our own knowledge but is invariably influenced by the system of values or rather by specific integration of values and knowledge. (shrink)

The paper justifies the concept of “thematic structure” or “order of knowledge” over the traditional “classification of sciences” due to the uncertainty of many classification criteria. The thematic structure of science has, of course, various levels and various dimensions. Arguments against any forms of separating the humanities from sciences in the traditional sense of the term are presented and discussed. Equally unacceptable are attempts at sharp separation of technical disciplines and humanities. The thematic structure of humanities is not created by (...) some material aspects but rather through the interest — or problem-oriented aspects. In addition to the natural sciences and the humanities there exists an important sphere of sciences on artefacts or, using the term by H. Simon, the sciences of the artificial. For the contemporary research activities is typical what could be denoted as “interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary complex.” The paper traces a set of epistemological criteria for the justification of the relative independence of a scientific discipline. (shrink)