Information Ethics

1041 Words3 Pages

Information Ethics

The paper addresses theoretical and practical aspects of information ethics from an intercultural perspective.

The recent concept of information ethics is related particularly to problems which arose in the last century with the development of computer technology and the internet. A broader concept of information ethics as dealing with the digital reconstruction of all possible phenomena leads to questions relating to digital ontology. Following Heidegger's conception of the relation between ontology and metaphysics, the author argues that ontology has to do with Being itself and not just with the Being of beings which is the matter of metaphysics. The primary aim of an ontological foundation of information ethics is to question the metaphysical ambitions of digital ontology understood as today's pervading understanding of being. The author analyzes some challenges of digital technology, particularly with regard to the moral status of digital agents. It has been argues that information ethics does not only deal with ethical questions relating to the infosphere. This view is contrasted with arguments presented by Luciano Floridi on the foundation of information ethics as well as on the moral status of digital agents. It is argued that a reductionist view of the human body as digital data overlooks the limits of digital ontology and gives up one basis for ethical orientation. Finally issues related to the digital divide as well as to intercultural aspects of information ethics are explored and long and short-term agendas for appropriate responses are presented.

Luciano Floridi has developed a notion of Information Ethics that begins, classically enough, with ontology but with a nov...

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... I am suggesting here are large. They concern such basic issues as the so-called digital divide that should not be understood primarily as a question of how people can get access to the internet but on how the digital casting of Beings affects, for better or for worse, our everyday lives and cultures (Scheule et al. 2004). Instead of viewing human existence as part of the global digital network, we should twist this perspective. "Localizing the Internet. Ethical Issues in Intercultural Perspective" was the title of an international symposium organized by the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE) and sponsored by VolkswagenStiftung (Capurro et al. 2006).

References:

Luciano Floridi, (1999), "Understanding Information Ethics", an article.

Richard T. De George, (2002), "The Ethics of Information Technology and Business (Fundamentals of Business Ethics)"

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