Signals that make a Difference

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science:axx022 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Recent work by Brian Skyrms offers a very general way to think about how information flows and evolves in biological networks — from the way monkeys in a troop communicate, to the way cells in a body coordinate their actions. A central feature of his account is a way to formally measure the quantity of information contained in the signals in these networks. In this paper, we argue there is a tension between how Skyrms talks of signalling networks and his formal measure of information. Although Skyrms refers to both how information flows through networks and that signals carry information, we show that his formal measure only captures the latter. We then suggest that to capture the notion of flow in signalling networks, we need to treat them as causal networks. This provides the formal tools to define a measure that does capture flow, and we do so by drawing on recent work defining causal specificity. Finally, we suggest that this new measure is crucial if we wish to explain how evolution creates information. For signals to play a role in explaining their own origins and stability, they can’t just carry information about acts: they must be difference-makers for acts.

Similar books and articles

Signals: Evolution, Learning, and Information.Brian Skyrms - 2010 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
The flow of information in signaling games.Brian Skyrms - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 147 (1):155 - 165.
Propositional Content in Signalling Systems.Jonathan Birch - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 171 (3):493-512.
Skyrms on the Possibility of Universal Deception.Don Fallis - 2015 - Philosophical Studies 172 (2):375-397.
John Maynard Smith’s notion of animal signals.Ulrich E. Stegmann - 2005 - Biology and Philosophy 20 (5):1011-1025.
Does information inform confirmation?Colin Howson - 2016 - Synthese 193 (7):2307-2321.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-12-02

Downloads
456 (#38,367)

6 months
93 (#38,886)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Brett Calcott
University of Sydney
Paul Edmund Griffiths
University of Sydney

Citations of this work

Signals are minimal causes.Marc Artiga - 2021 - Synthese 198 (9):8581-8599.
Biological Information as Choice and Construction.Arnaud Pocheville - 2018 - Philosophy of Science 85 (5):1012-1025.
Animal culture: But of which kind?Hugo Viciana - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90 (C):208-218.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Convention: A Philosophical Study.David Kellogg Lewis - 1969 - Cambridge, MA, USA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference.Judea Pearl - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Causality.Judea Pearl - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 22 references / Add more references