Cybersemiotics: A reconceptualization of the foundation for information science

In the attempt to construct foundations for information science (FIS) both pan-informational and pan-semiotic paradigms have been developed. In my wor k I have argued that neither paradigm makes sense in isolation from the oth er. The reductionistic and totalitarian paradigms in cybernetics, informati on science and semiotics are then abandoned. Instead, paradigms of second o rder cybernetics and autopoiesis, on the one hand, and Peirce's semiotics o n the other (understood as biosemiotics) are investigated. These are non-du alistic and have pragmatic, evolutionary, self-organizing views on systems, including their closure and cognition. Since these views are found to be s econd order, the necessary work is done to unite them into the non-reductio nistic framework of cybersemiotics. This is suggested as a new FIS. Copy-ri ght (C) 2001 International Society for the Systems Sciences.