Information and Pluralism. Consequences for Scientific Representation and Methods

Both logic and philosophy of science have developed independent pluralistic views. Nevertheless, a general notion of pluralism is quite elusive. This paper will draw on the theory of information, including Shannon’s version and its fundamental concept of coding, to set up a notion of pluralism that may contribute to an updated idea of the scientific method, such as to interact with computational models. I will discuss Patrick Allo’s notion of “informational pluralism” and connect it with Wesley Salmon’s treatment of “statistical relevance” and James Woodward’s analysis of the “data-phenomena” relationship. Based on the concept of information, I will argue that there is a possible convergence of the three views.