Luciano Floridi is a leading thinker in the philosophy of information and information ethics. His work deeply explores the nature of information and its ethical implications in the digital age. Floridi is characterized by a precise analytical approach and the ability to connect complex philosophical concepts with the real-world challenges of the information society. His influence extends beyond academic circles, shaping discussions on digital ethics and the future of information.
Focusing on the intersection of environmental policies and digital solutions, this book presents a compelling argument for enhancing democracy and reforming capitalism in the digital age. Luciano Floridi advocates for responsible practices that promote sustainability and social equity, offering fresh insights and bold strategies for political reform. Through engaging analysis and thought experiments, readers are encouraged to critically examine the future of politics and collaborate for meaningful change, making it a vital read for those interested in the philosophy of technology and modern governance.
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence develops the theses that AI is an
unprecedented divorce between agency and intelligence and, on this basis, that
AI as a new form of agency can be harnessed ethically and unethically. Luciano
Floridi argues in favour of a marriage between the Green of environmentalism
and the Blue of our digital technologies.
Luciano Floridi presents an innovative approach to philosophy, conceived as
conceptual design. His starting-point is that reality provides the data which
we transform into information. He explores how we make, transform, refine, and
improve the objects of our knowledge, and defends the radical idea that
knowledge is design.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have profoundly changed many aspects of life, including the nature of entertainment, work, communication, education, healthcare, industrial production and business, social relations and conflicts. They have had a radical and widespread impact on our moral lives and hence on contemporary ethical debates. The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, first published in 2010, provides an ambitious and authoritative introduction to the field, with discussions of a range of topics including privacy, ownership, freedom of speech, responsibility, technological determinism, the digital divide, cyber warfare, and online pornography. It offers an accessible and thoughtful survey of the transformations brought about by ICTs and their implications for the future of human life and society, for the evaluation of behaviour, and for the evolution of moral values and rights. It will be a valuable book for all who are interested in the ethical aspects of the information society in which we live.
Luciano Floridi develops an original ethical framework for dealing with the new challenges posed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). ICTs have profoundly changed many aspects of life, including the nature of entertainment, work, communication, education, health care, industrial production and business, social relations, and conflicts. They have had a radical and widespread impact on our moral lives and on contemporary ethical debates. Privacy, ownership, freedom of speech, responsibility, technological determinism, the digital divide, and pornography online are only some of the pressing issues that characterise the ethical discourse in the information society. They are the subject of Information Ethics (IE), the new philosophical area of research that investigates the ethical impact of ICTs on human life and society. Since the seventies, IE has been a standard topic in many curricula. In recent years, there has been a flourishing of new university courses, international conferences, workshops, professional organizations, specialized periodicals and research centres. However, investigations have so far been largely influenced by professional and technical approaches, addressing mainly legal, social, cultural and technological problems. This book is the first philosophical monograph entirely and exclusively dedicated to it. Floridi lays down, for the first time, the conceptual foundations for IE. He does so systematically, by pursuing three goals: a) a metatheoretical goal: it describes what IE is, its problems, approaches and methods; b) an introductory goal: it helps the reader to gain a better grasp of the complex and multifarious nature of the various concepts and phenomena related to computer ethics; c) an analytic goal: it answers several key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest, arising from the investigation of the ethical implications of ICTs. Although entirely independent of The Philosophy of Information (OUP, 2011), Floridi's previous book, The Ethics of Information complements it as new work on the foundations of the philosophy of information.
What is the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the human condition? In order to address this question, in 2012 the European Commission organized a research project entitled 'The Onlife Initiative: concept reengineering for rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition'. This volume collects the work of the Onlife Initiative. It explores how the development and widespread use of ICTs have a radical impact on the human condition.0ICTs are not mere tools but rather social forces that are increasingly affecting our self-conception (who we are), our mutual interactions (how we socialise); our conception of reality (our metaphysics); and our interactions with reality (our agency). In each case, ICTs have a huge ethical, legal, and political significance, yet one with which we have begun to come to terms only recently.0The impact exercised by ICTs is due to at least four major transformations: the blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality; the blurring of the distinction between human, machine and nature; the reversal from information scarcity to information abundance; and the shift from the primacy of stand-alone things, properties, and binary relations, to the primacy of interactions, processes and networks. The goal of 'The Manifesto', and of the whole book that contextualises, is therefore that of contributing to the update of our philosophy. It is a constructive goal. The book is meant to be a positive contribution to rethinking the philosophy on which policies are built in a hyperconnected world, so that we may have a better chance of understanding our ICT-related problems and solving them satisfactorily
Who are we, and how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi, a leading contemporary philosopher, explores how developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are reshaping these fundamental questions. As the lines between online and offline life blur, we become interconnected and surrounded by smart objects, integrating into an "infosphere." The personas we adopt on social media increasingly influence our 'real' lives, leading us to live in a state Floridi calls "onlife." This metaphysical shift signifies a fourth revolution, akin to those initiated by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud. "Onlife" permeates our daily activities—shopping, working, learning, caring for health, entertainment, and relationships, as well as interactions with law, finance, and politics, even warfare. ICTs act as environmental forces that create and transform our realities. To harness their benefits, we must consider the implicit risks: will these technologies empower or constrain us? Floridi argues for an expanded ecological and ethical perspective that encompasses both natural and artificial realities, advocating for an 'e' in environmentalism that effectively addresses the challenges posed by our digital technologies and information society.
This work fulfills the need for a conceptual and technical framework to improve understanding of Information Quality (IQ) and Information Quality standards. The meaning and practical implementation of IQ are addressed, as it is relevant to any field where there is a need to handle data and issues such as accessibility, accuracy, completeness, currency, integrity, reliability, timeliness, usability, the role of metrics and so forth are all a part of Information Quality. In order to support the cross-fertilization of theory and practice, the latest research is presented in this book. The perspectives of experts from beyond the origins of IQ in computer science are included: library and information science practitioners and academics, philosophers of information, of engineering and technology, and of science are all contributors to this volume. The chapters in this volume are based on the work of a collaborative research project involving the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Google and led by Professor Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford. This work will be of interest to anyone handling data, including those from commercial, public, governmental and academic organizations. The expert editors’ contributions introduce issues of interest to scientists, database curators and philosophers, even though the issues may be disguised in the language and examples common to a different discipline.
Luciano Floridi presents a book that will set the agenda for the philosophy of information — the study of the nature of information and the development of information-theoretic and computational methodologies for philosophy. It revitalizes old philosophical questions, poses new problems, and it has already produced a wealth of important results.