Putting Information First

Putting Information First focuses on Luciano Floridi’s contributions to the philosophy of information. Respected scholars stimulate the debate on the most distinctive and controversial views he defended, and present the philosophy of information as a specific way of doing philosophy.

• Contains eight essays by leading scholars, a reply by Luciano Floridi, and an epilogue by Terrell W. Bynum
• Explains the importance of philosophy of information as a specific way of doing philosophy
• Focuses directly on the work of Luciano Floridi in the area of philosophy of information, but also connects to contemporary concerns in philosophy more generally
• Illustrates several debates that arise from core themes in the philosophy of information

Notes on Contributors.

Introduction.

1 Putting Information First: Luciano Floridi and the Philosophy of Information (PATRICK ALLO).

Knowledge.

2 The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Survival (SHERRILYN ROUSH).

3 Knowledge Transmissibility and Pluralistic Ignorance: A First Stab (VINCENT F. HENDRICKS).

Agency.

4 Meeting Floridi’s Challenge to Artificial Intelligence from the Knowledge-Game Test for Self-Consciousness (SELMER BRINGSJORD).

Semantic Information.

5 Information Without Truth (ANDREA SCARANTINO AND GUALTIERO PICCININI).

6 Information and Knowledge a la Floridi (FRED ADAMS).

Methodology.

7 Abstraction, Law, and Freedom in Computer Science (TIMOTHY COLBURN AND GARY SHUTE).

Metaphysics.

8 Structuralism and Information (OTA VIO BUENO).

Ethics.

9 Why Information Ethics Must Begin with Virtue Ethics (RICHARD VOLKMAN).

Replies.

10 The Philosophy of Information: Ten Years Later (LUCIANO FLORIDI).

Epilogue.

11 Philosophy in the Information Age (TERRELL WARD BYNUM).

Index.

Patrick Allo is a Postdoctoral Fellow based at the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. He is also affiliated with the Information Ethics Group at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the interface between the philosophy of logic, formal epistemology, and the philosophy of information. The philosophy of information is the area concerned with the critical investigation of the nature and principles of information. This includes its dynamics, its use, especially as far as ethical issues are concerned, and the application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems.

The core aim of this volume is to present the philosophy of information as a specific way of doing philosophy. It focuses on the contributions of Luciano Floridi, and stimulates the debate on the most distinctive and controversial views he defended. This challenge is taken up by leading and upcoming scholars who work in areas related to the philosophy of information, and includes a reply from Floridi.

Although the volume focuses directly on the work of Floridi in the philosophy of information, it also connects to contemporary concerns in philosophy, especially in logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, epistemology and ethics. This volume is sure to have a concrete and lasting influence by engaging the area of the Philosophy of Information with the philosophical community at large.