Two Informatics Revolutions Promote the Leap of Science View and Methodology—On the Zeitgeist Embodied in Religious Psychology, Physical Psychology, and Information Psychology ^†

Abstract

The authors of this article believe that from the perspective of the development of human spiritual products, the transformation of our scientific worldview and methodology from the paradigm of physics to the paradigm of informatics is an inevitable law of historical development. This article introduces the concepts and theories of two information science revolutions. The first information science revolution transformed “information concepts” into “information tools”. The second information science revolution transformed “information tools” into “information concepts”, which had a decisive impact on the transformation of human scientific views and methodologies (classed as scientific paradigms). At the same time, we observe the development trajectory of “psychology”, which began from the original version of ancient Greece, which passed through “religious psychology” and “physical psychology” and developed into the currently known “information psychology”. We can see the evolution of the “era spirit”: from “gods” and “materials”, it inevitably moves towards “information”. Therefore, promoting the spirit of the times of “Informationism” is a common task for contemporary scientists and philosophers.

1. Introduction

The authors of this article believe that similar to the spring and autumn periods and the Warring States period in China, there were also a “hundred schools of thought contend” in the ancient Greek and Roman eras. Various schools of thought heckled and contended with each other, with the stars shining brightly and brilliantly. At that time, society was turbulent, with disputes among various vassal states. Various academic groups discuss current events, elaborate on philosophical theories, write books, and formulate their own opinions. They are relatively independent of political power, not attached to a certain power group, but rather “stay with me, go without me”. Therefore, almost all kinds of ideological trends in later generations can find “the original version” there. This article introduces the viewpoints of two information science revolutions and discusses their decisive impact on the transformation of human scientific concepts and methodology (as a scientific paradigm). At the same time, beginning from the ancient Greek version of “psychology”, we will comb its development clues and explore the evolution of the zeitgeist: from “gods” and “materials” to “information”. The authors believe that the transformation of the human scientific worldview and methodology from the paradigm of physics into the paradigm of informatics is an inevitable law of historical development.

2. Seeing the Transformation of Science View and Methodology from the Perspective of Two Information Science Revolutions

From a purely “material” perspective, humans are not much different from the scenes of ants, bees, and stubborn monkeys, for instance. However, from a purely “information” perspective, humans are “vastly different” from animals, plants, and other organisms. In addition to using the “signals” common to other organisms, humans have also invented and used “symbols” (characters) to record human thought processes and products, reflecting the state and achievements of our “hearts”. There are four products that constitute human culture, which are as follows: material culture, behavioral culture, institutional culture, and spiritual culture. As Plato stated, the basic element that runs through all human culture is an “idea”, and the highest idea is “good”. Under the light of the “sun”, humans can see matter and its motion with the “naked eye”; under the light of “good”, one can use their “mind” to see ideas and their evolution. Therefore, human beings face two worlds: (1) the world of “material”, in which “natural science” studies the particulars and universals of material object, based on “physics”; and (2) in the world of “ideas”, “Humanities and social sciences” study the particulars and universals of these idea objects based on “linguistics”.

The human “language” expresses various phenomena and processes in nature and society. Humanistic and social scientists are concerned with the objects they “know by heart”, that is abstract ideas, such as “freedom” and “equality”. Based on the understanding of an individual special “equality”, the general meaning of “equality” has been abstracted, such as Rawls’s “Theory of Justice” on “social fairness”, and so on. “Freedom” and “equality” do not have the “material” and “form” in Aristotle’s “Four Cause Theory”, and they do not exist in nature; “They have no volume or weight, cannot be “located” in “time” or “space”, and have no physical “trajectory” of motion. However, in the history of human civilization, they do exist and continue to evolve. If human society does not have the relevant “universal” knowledge of “homicide”, “arson”, “robbery”, and “rape”, laws and regulations, and national violence without compulsory justice, how can there be life safety, economic development, and social progress? Clearly, compared to the study of objects seen with the “naked eye”, the study of objects known to the “soul” may be more important for individuals, families, and our society in general. We believe that Plato’s theory of ideas is actually the “information theory”. Obviously, Aristotle was the first “physicist” and Plato was the first “informatist”; Aristotle proposed the first theory of physics, while Plato proposed the first theory of informatics [1].

At the time of Shannon, the concept of “information” in the scientific sense was formally proposed and defined. The term of immaterial used by Plato was the concept which has an equivalent meaning to “information”. Plato’s “informatics” involves informatics that does not directly use the information concept. It is informatics in the conceptual sense, and it is informatics of ideas. Plato’s informatics can be applied to the thinking and research of the humanities and social sciences, but it cannot be directly applied to daily production and life. Shannon, Weiner, and von Neumann founded the second “informatics”. Their informatics realized the instrumentalization of informatics and solved the mathematical logic physical problems in communication, control, computing, and robotics, as well as microelectronics. This is a revolution from the “concept to tool”, from “information concept” to “information tool”. We call it the first information science revolution.

Philosophical thinking about information began with Wiener. He stated that “Information is information, not matter, nor energy”. Since then, the “ternary theory” of the constituent elements of the universe has spread. We believe that the establishment and development of “theoretical informatics” has enabled the entire knowledge system of information science to be established, overcoming the “disciplinary arrogance” of related disciplines in informatics in the past. For example, computer science was renamed as “information science”, and intelligent science (artificial intelligence) has separated from information science, etc. With a unified system, there is a “foundation” and responsibility in front of natural science. Information science is another major category of a scientific system comparable to natural science, which, together with natural science, divides “science” into two parts and cooperates to explain nature, our society, and human thinking. On this basis, an information philosophy different from Wiener’s “information philosophy” was established and developed, and it even advocated a zeitgeist of “informationism”. At this point, we believe that informatics has achieved a transformation from a physical tool into science view and methodology; we call it the “Second Informatics Revolution”.

We believe that the time is ripe to modify the formula of “science = natural science” into “science = natural science + information science”. This includes the transformation of “science-view” and “methodology” (the transformation of the “scientific paradigm”), that is, from the “physics paradigm” (natural science paradigm) to the “information science paradigm”. The meaning of this transformation is not to lose the natural sciences with the emergence of the information sciences; rather, it is based on natural science complementing information science and allowing them to work together in a collaborative manner, each taking its place. Just like the “hardware” and “software” in computers and smartphones, no one can be separated from each other. Both are working together to serve human communication, control, computing, and intelligence [2].

3. Looking at the Transformation of the Spirit of the Times from the Path of Psychological Development

3.1. Ancient Greek Psychology

Ancient Greek thought is not only the origin of Western philosophy, but also the origin of Western psychological thought. Philosophers have made theoretical contributions to the observation and reflection of several psychological phenomena, especially regarding the source of consciousness, the classification of personality, and the process of cognitive learning. However, their interpretations vary, and different aspects of emphasis constitute different orientations, which are as follows:

First, natural orientation. The natural orientation focuses on the external world of human beings, and through the observation of the relationship between human beings and nature, different views of soul and psychological activities have been proposed from the perspective of natural materials. In the natural orientation, the Millitarian school and Democritus paid more attention to observation, while Heraclitus and Parmenides paid more attention to hypothetical reasoning;

Second, mathematical orientation. Mathematical orientation uses the beauty and harmony of the mathematical structure to explain the unity of the world, and mathematical relationships to explain psychological phenomena. The study of psychological phenomena mainly adopts quantitative methods. The representative is the famous mathematician Pythagoras of ancient Greece. The Pythagorean study of musical sound perception is said to be the earliest quantitative study of psychophysical methods in psychology;

Third, physiological orientation. Philosophers with a physiological orientation emphasize the internal state of the human body, explaining human activities, and especially psychological activities, on a physiological basis. Its representatives include several outstanding figures who are both medical scientists and philosophers, who are known as “primitive psychologists”. As observed by Hippocrates, the functioning of the body is controlled by contralateral brain nerves;

Fourth, compromise orientation. Compromise orientation refers to a tendency to reconcile the positions and explanations of psychological problems in different or even conflicting theoretical systems within psychology, with both agreeing or disagreeing. This tendency is represented by a group known as Sophists, whose main representatives include Protagoras and Gorgias;

Fifth, the orientation of humanism. Humanists, such as Socrates, believe in the ability of human beings to discover virtue, emphasizing the self and its relationship to reality. Socrates initiated a tradition that was further developed for Plato and Aristotle. He began his research focusing on people and their related characteristics with the famous quote “Know Yourself” from the Delphi Temple [3].

3.2. Religious Psychology in the Middle Ages

The development of psychology across the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance arose from the fourth century to around the sixteenth century, respectively. During this historical period, psychology almost stagnated, and the inheritance of the ancient Greek sages was mainly “selectively preserved” in the form of religion. At that time, the Roman emperor declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, and from then on, religion and political power were combined. The theological views transmitted by priests have gradually become the only way for people to understand the world. After this period, psychology was mainly dominated by theological psychology.

The medieval theologian Augustine combined the teachings of Christ with the ideas of Plato. He proposed that both the soul and body are created by God; the unique soul of humanity is immaterial, pervading the entire body, a part of God, and a part of human reason and conscience; the body is no different from other animals; and the body is subject to the soul, and the soul is subject to God. Augustine created a value drive immortality of the soul, whereby the soul of good will go to the “City of God” after the end of the body, while the soul of evil will go to the “City of the Devil”. The way people communicate with God can either be through the Bible or through introspection. This is how Augustine explained and inherited the research achievements of human psychology in the previous eight centuries, and his theory has become the only psychological standard for the next eight centuries.

After nearly a thousand years of stagnation, a new theological sect gradually emerged in the thirteenth century. This school opposed Platonism and mainly inherited the philosophy of Aristotle. Its representative figure is Thomas Aquinas. He believes that reason and belief do not conflict, but both point to the same truth—God is the lord of all things. For psychology, Aquinas’ main contribution is in the field of cognition. He divided human cognition into three levels. The first level is sensory cognition, which recognizes individual and specific objective things through the senses; the second layer is passive rationality, which extracts concepts from specific things and forms opinions through methods, such as induction, summary, and analysis; and the third layer is active rationality, which transforms immaterial (things, concepts, etc., that cannot be perceived with the five senses) into things that can be understood and recognized through the transformation of thought. Therefore, he is also known as the founder of empirical psychology [4,5].

3.3. Wundt’s Scientific Psychology and Fishner’s Psychophysics

In the centuries following Aquinas’ death, psychology seemed to have entered a stagnant phase again. By the end of the 15th century, the widespread application of gunpowder, printing, and other technologies had promoted the rapid dissemination of knowledge. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, during the Renaissance, science took a significant step forward. At that time, experimental physiology was relatively developed in Germany. In the early 19th century, there was a wave of educational reform in Germany, implementing academic freedom. At that time, in Germany, the income of research scientists was relatively high, leading to a broader research field for German scientists, who conducted in-depth experimental biology research. In fact, psychology had been widely developed in Germany before Wundt founded the psychology laboratory. Therefore, the eventual emergence of psychology in Germany is a general trend. Even without Wundt, other German scientists will create psychology [6], as “experimental psychology” guided by “experimental biology” inevitably leads to “scientific psychology”.

Psychophysics is a branch of experimental psychology. It studies the quantitative relationship between psychological and physical quantities, mainly the measurement of psychological quantities. In 1860, Fishner first proposed the concept of “psychophysics” and the experimental method dedicated to the study of psychological activities termed the psychophysical method, marking the birth of this discipline. Fishner established Fishner’s law on the basis of Weber’s law. It is a simple law to express, with the formula S = KlgR, where S is the sensory intensity, R represents the stimulus intensity, and K is a constant. In short, this law states that all human senses, including vision, hearing, skin sensations (including pain, itching, touch, and temperature), taste, smell, and electric shock sensations, comply with the principle that sensation is not directly proportional to the intensity of the corresponding physical quantity, but is directly proportional to the commonly used logarithm of the intensity of the corresponding physical quantity.

3.4. Contemporary Information Psychology

In traditional psychology, “scientific research methods” are quantitative and formulaic methods. We believe that it is completely correct in the study of physical objects and is generally applicable in the material process of evaluating psychological phenomena, but it has little effect in the study of pure psychological information. We believe that among the achievements of psychology over the past few hundred years, there are many shining and never fading truths, such as the psychoanalytic theory, Gestalt theory, Piaget’s theory, Masno’s theory, and so on; they have become a “conventional weapon” for professionals in the treatment of mental illnesses and psychological counseling processes. However, without the support of a systematic science view and methodology of information science, they are both sidelines that do not enter the mainstream, cannot enter the elegant halls of science, and cannot create a grand climate. Regarding the future of traditional psychology as a whole, pessimists believe that according to Kuhn’s paradigm theory, psychology can never become a science; “Psychology has declined and disintegrated from the trend of prosperity and development in Western developed countries, and it is likely that psychology will be merged or replaced by other disciplines in the future”.

From the perspective of the different recognitions of their research objects by the entire psychology discipline, and from the chaotic state of different science views and methodologies in psychology at present, the dominant mainstream thought in traditional psychology is not “information psychology”, but “material psychology”. We believe that the philosophical basis and basic assumptions of the entire system are fundamentally flawed. Information psychology aims to overcome this defect by recognizing the research objects, research methods, assumptions, and knowledge framework of psychology in accordance with the science view and methodology of information science. Due to space limitations, it will not be described here [7].

4. Conclusions

In his doctoral thesis titled A Research on Information Complexity, Li Zongrong pointed out that Plato established the first conceptual form of information theory; Shannon’s information theory transformed information concepts into information tools, realizing the first revolution in informatics. The second informatics revolution, marked by the birth of theoretical informatics, has realized the sublimation of information tools to an information science view. It can be predicted that with the promotion of these two information science revolutions to the leap of science view and methodology, the paradigm of information science will gradually become stronger, and the orientation of informationism will gradually take the leading position.

From the development of psychology, it can be seen that it began from the original version of ancient Greece, went through “religious psychology” and “physical psychology”, and developed into the current “information psychology”. The “spirit of the times” is transforming from “gods” and “materials” into “information”. With the continuous expansion and deepening of “discipline informatization” in the fields of natural science and humanities and social sciences, the entire scientific knowledge system of mankind is facing a transformation from the scientific paradigm of “physicalism” into the scientific paradigm of “informatics”. Our scientific outlook, worldview, and methodology have undergone a fundamental change, which is an inevitable law in the history of human history of science. Therefore, promoting the spirit of the times of “Informationism” is a common task that contemporary scientists and philosophers are bound to undertake.