Information Science and Philosophy of Information: Approaches and Differences

Abstract

In this text we explore, in a brief and systematic way, the epistemological and theoretical groundings of Information Science (IS), understood as a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary field, which is being developed and taught at the University of Porto over the last decade. IS’s object of study – information – is also characterized, as well as its non-symmetrical, yet complementary and elementary relationship with communication. From that basis, the points of convergence and divergence with Philosophy of Information, as it is conceived and discussed by Luciano Floridi, are put in debate.