抄録
The modern science at large is now undergoing a following dual but inseparable paradigm shift. First, sciences related to information such as molecular biology and computer science, etc. have led to the appearance of the scientific concept of information as contrasted with the concept of mass-energy. This scientific concept of information may cover various types of information from its broadest sense of "any pattern of mass-energy" through "a set of signs in any stage of its evolution" to the narrowest sense of "a set of outer symbols which is transmitted and influences decision-making of an actor in terms of its cognitive function", that is to say, the sense of information as in natural language. Secondly, the above sciences related to information along with each "institution" school in the social sciences, also have led to an awareness that there can be another type of modern science, namely, program-explicating science as opposed to nomothetic or law-setting one. The scientific construct of program is defined here as "a set of signs in any evolutionary stage which emerges, is selected and stored in a biological or human system, generating, maintaining and diversifying the patterns of the structure and process of the system". The paradigm change of the 21st modern science as stated above will give birth to a new discipline of the social science called "socio-informatics", which is expected to offer new perspectives to solve the paradigmatic problems of the social science, utilizing the new concepts of information and program.
