2011 Volume 10 Issue 1 Pages 63-74
The aim of this paper is to examine the future direction of informatics by investigating its philosophical assumptions. First, the problem concerning the philosophical assumptions of informatics is described by focusing on the change of approach in information retrieval research. Second, some meta-theories of informatics which take into account the philosophical problem are investigated, and it becomes clear that the discussions about the philosophical assumptions of informatics and the problem of views of life are intertwined. On the other hand, a similar philosophical problem underlies life sciences, and the problem of views of information can be seen in the center of the issue. As they refer to each other in terms of these underlying structures, informatics as a meta-theory and life sciences can be considered as two sides of the same coin. Anthropomorphizing is one of their common problems, which we need to work on in order to develop and deepen the theory of informatics.
