Epistemology & Cognition Lab

Does information exist in the world independently of brains and/or organisms that can interpret it? Answering this question is important for clarifying the theoretical foundations of the sciences of mind and brain. This chapter claims that Popperian objectivity-properly modified-is sufficient for the explanatory role that information often plays in these sciences without endorsing a problematic mind-independent notion of information. There exists, however, a tension between two Popperian views about objectivity: intersubjective agreement and World 3. In order to ground the objectivity of information-as it is used in the sciences of mind and brain, the relation between Popperian intersubjectivity and World 3 objectivity is examined in this chapter. The conclusion is that mind-dependent information can be objective when it is intersubjectively agreed upon, or, to put it differently, when "actualised" information in World 3 stands in the right relation to World 1.