Data (preliminary)

This section is devoted to collect the preliminary definitios one can hold about the data concept, as a first step in a further inquire of the core concepts of philosophy in the information age. The question "what is data?" is posed to participants in the seminar "A Journey through philosophy" in a very early stage. Thereafter, participants are invited to write down here their understandings of the term trying to group them in the definitions provided by other participants.

Please, before providing your definition take a careful look to the previous ones and ammend them if you consider necessary, leaving a note in the discussion tab (top, left). Indeed the discussion page can be very productive in a free confrontation of the different understandings as a dialectical approach to a better common understanding.

Preliminary definitions of the concept

Data can be understood as facts about a specific topic that contribute to creating a new discovery or idea.

• Supporters of this understanding: Vanessa Castro

Data is any type of feature of anything. These features are always objective, factual, and non-discussible. Data can exist by itself, but the moment it is observed it turns into information, which then becomes open for interpretation and thus potentially, but not necessarily, subjective.

• Supporters of this understanding: Philip Deischl