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Axiology trumps logic

What is value?

The measure of the worth or desirability of something.
The foundation of meaning.

Value is the foundation of meaning.
It is the measure of the worth or desirability (positive or negative) of something, and of how well something conforms to its concept or intension. Value formation and value-based reasoning are fundamental to all areas of human endeavor. Theories embody values. The axiom of value is based on “concept fulfillment.”

Most areas of human reasoning require application of multiple theories; resolution of conflicts, uncertainties, competing values, and analysis of trade-offs. For example, questions of guilt or innocence require judgment of far more than logical truth or falsity.

Axiology is the branch of philosophy that studies value and value theory.
Things like honesty, truthfulness, objectiveness, novelty, originality, “progress,” people satisfaction, etc. The word ‘axiology’, derived from two Greek roots ‘axios’ (worth or value) and ‘logos’ (logic or theory), means the theory of value, and concerns the process of understanding values and valuation.

What is theory?

Any conditional or unconditional assertion, axiom or constraint used for reasoning about the world.

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A theory is any conjecture, opinion, or speculation. In this usage, a theory is not necessarily based on facts and may or may not be consistent with verifiable descriptions of reality.

We use theories to reason about the world. In this sense, theory is a set of interrelated constructs — formulas and inference rules and a relational model (a set of constants and a set of relations defined on the set of constants).

“The ontology of a theory consists in the objects theory assumes there to be.”
— Quine — Word and Object, 1960

Theories are accepted or rejected as a whole. If we choose to accept and use a theory for reasoning, then we must commit to all the ideas and relationships the theory needs to establish its existence.

In science, theory is a proposed rational description, explanation, or model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena.

Scientific theory should be capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation.

Values for theory construction include that theory should:

  • Add to our understanding of observed phenomena by explaining them in the simplest form possible (parsimony)
  • Fit cleanly with observed facts and with established principles
  • Be inherently testable and verifiable, and
  • Imply further investigations and predict new discoveries.
Theory is as theory does.

Theory is as theory does.

Physical theory of knowledge

Expect rapid progress towards a universal knowledge technology that provides a full spectrum of information, metadata, semantic modeling, and advanced reasoning capabilities for any who want it.

Computational theory of knowledge -- after Shannon.

Computational theory of knowledge — after Shannon.

Why? Large knowledgebases, complex forms of situation assessment, sophisticated reasoning with uncertainty and values, and autonomic and autonomous system behavior exceed the capabilities and performance capacity of current description logic-based approaches to concept computing.

Universal knowledge technology will be based on a physical theory of knowledge that holds that knowledge is anything that decreases uncertainty. The formula is:
Knowledge = Theory + Information.

Theories are the conditional constraints that give meaning to concepts, ideas and thought patterns. Theory asserts answers to “how”, “why” and “what if” questions. For humans, theory is learned through enculturation, education, and life experience.

Information, or data, provides situation awareness — who, what, when, where and how-much facts of situations and circumstances. Information requires theory to define its meaning and purpose.

Theory persists and always represents the lion’s share of knowledge content — say 85%. Information represents a much smaller portion of knowledge — perhaps only 15%

What will distinguish universal knowledge technology is enabling both machines and humans to understand, combine, and reason with any form of knowledge, of any degree of complexity, at any scale.

Answer to a query is a rational path.

Answer to a query is a rational path.

What is the scope of knowledge science?

Everything that has ever been thought or ever can be.

The scope of knowledge science.

The scope of knowledge science.

This diagram reflects a philosopher’s traditional picture and our acquired definitions of knowledge.

On the right (in blue) are all observations and measurements of the physical universe, the facts that characterize reality — past, present, and future. Within its bounds you find every object, every quantum of energy, every time and event perceived or perceivable by our senses and instrumentation. This situational knowledge of physical reality is “information” in the sense of Shannon. It is a world of singular and most “particular” things and facts upon which we might figuratively scratch some serial number or other identifying mark.

On the other side (in red) are all the “concepts” or ideas ever imagined — by human’s, by animals and plants, by Mickey Mouse, or a can of peas. We can “imagine” a can of peas thinking. It embraces every mode of visualizing and organizing and compelling the direction of our thoughts from logic to religion to economics to politics to every reason or rationale for making distinctions or for putting one thing before another.

At the center, divided between physical and metaphysical (abstract) are in gray all the things and ideas used as representations or metaphors for something else — physical sounds representing language; charts recording time, date, and temperature; pits burned in CD-ROMS; logs, journals, and history books. On the abstract side, we have alphabets and icons and equations and categories and models. Through these things we attempt to teach, to learn, to communicate, to record, to compute, to manipulate, and to integrate our knowledge of all things outside the limits of our own being and thinking and existence.