Analysis of the basics of information theory

Nowadays, the fundamental concept of information is very controversial. On the one hand, it is widely used almost in all spheres and the number of publications on this topic is huge and is constantly growing; on the other hand, the concept of information is intangible and there is a problem of defining the term from the perspective of the philosophy and science, so there are different meanings of the term (messages, data, etc.).

The term “information” is related to concepts that are adopted under legislative acts and regulations of Ukraine: information sphere (Law of Ukraine "On the Fundamentals of National Security", "Strategy for Ensuring State Security of Ukraine", "National Security Strategy of Ukraine", "Information Security Strategy of Ukraine"), information society (Information Security Strategy of Ukraine), information space (Law of Ukraine "On the National Security of Ukraine", "Information Security Strategy of Ukraine"), information resource (Law of Ukraine "On the Basic Principles of Ensuring Cybersecurity of Ukraine", "Cybersecurity Strategy of Ukraine").

The Law of Ukraine "On Information" No. 2658-XII dated 02.10.92 establishes the general legal principles for receiving, using, distribution, storing and securing information.

However, such interpretation of the Law of Ukraine "On Information" is restricted, as the knowledge exchange between people hasn`t been taken into account.

The goal of the paper is to research the approaches of leading scientists on the subject of the concept of information and to form individual approach based on the analysis.

The analysis of the current state of the definition of the concept of information has revealed that some scientists classify information with the concept of “knowledge”, the meaning of which is not obvious; others introduce their personal idea of the concept that is very different from Shannon's both in content and measure; others interpreted information as messages, data; some of them specify information as “the variety that one entity has information about another one” and make a conclusion that “information expresses properties of matter”. The concept of information is confused for readers by numerous scientists as they cannot clarify the meaning on their own. R. Hartley and C. Shannon, the founders of information theory, have a great impact on the concept of information. The essence of the concept of information is becoming increasingly relevant. However, even recent studies have not given the obvious meaning of the term “information”. Consequently, according to the scientists’ theories, the term "information" can be defined as: information is a kind of knowledge that can be obtained and exchanged with and without technical means and tools.

Key words: information, measure of the information quantities, value of information.