Dialectical inquiring systems: A new methodology for information science

A taxonomy for modeling information systems is presented. The taxonomy derives from the history of Western epistemology. Epistemology is used as a prescriptive modeling basis because (1) the fundamental problems of epistemology are concerned with information, and (2), because the history of epistemology identifies and archetypal ways that men have conceived of information and of models. It is shown how the different models of epistemology can be made scientifically operational through the use of a special kind of systems analysis. Finally, the results of a preliminary experiment based on one of the models are presented in the form of prescriptive rules for the design of future experiments.

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