Putting Information First: Luciano Floridi and the Philosophy of Information

207 Pages·2011·2.671 MB·English

by  Armen T. Marsoobian, Brian J. Huschle, Eric Cavallero(eds.)

Putting Information First
METAPHILOSOPHY SERIES IN PHILOSOPHY
Series Editors Armen T. Marsoobian, Brian J. Huschle,
and Eric Cavallero
The Philosophy of Interpretation, edited by Joseph Margolis and Tom
Rockmore (2000)
Global Justice, edited by Thomas W. Pogge (2001)
Cyberphilosophy:TheIntersectionofComputingandPhilosophy,editedby
James H. Moor and Terrell Ward Bynum (2002)
Moral and Epistemic Virtues, edited by Michael Brady and Duncan
Pritchard (2003)
TheRangeofPragmatismandtheLimitsofPhilosophy,editedbyRichard
Shusterman (2004)
The Philosophical Challenge of September 11, edited by Tom Rockmore,
Joseph Margolis, and Armen T. Marsoobian (2005)
Global Institutions and Responsibilities: Achieving Global Justice, edited
by Christian Barry and Thomas W. Pogge (2005)
Genocide’s Aftermath: Responsibility and Repair, edited by Claudia Card
and Armen T. Marsoobian (2007)
Stem Cell Research: The Ethical Issues, edited by Lori Gruen, Laura
Grabel, and Peter Singer (2007)
CognitiveDisabilityandItsChallengetoMoralPhilosophy,editedbyEva
Feder Kittay and Licia Carlson (2010)
Virtue and Vice, Moral and Epistemic, edited by Heather Battaly (2010)
GlobalDemocracyandExclusion,editedbyRonaldTinneveltandHelder
De Schutter (2010)
Putting Information First: Luciano Floridi and the Philosophy of Informa-
tion, edited by Patrick Allo (2010)
Putting Information First
Luciano Floridi and the Philosophy of Information
Edited by
Patrick Allo
Thiseditionfirstpublished2010
Originallypublishedasvolume41,no.3(April2010)ofMetaphilosophy
Chaptersr2010TheAuthors
Bookcompilationr2010byBlackwellPublishingLtdandMetaphilosophyLLC
BlackwellPublishingwasacquiredbyJohnWiley&SonsinFebruary2007.Blackwell’s
publishingprogramhasbeenmergedwithWiley’sglobalScientific,Technical,andMedical
businesstoformWiley-Blackwell.
RegisteredOffice
JohnWiley&SonsLtd,TheAtrium,SouthernGate,Chichester,WestSussex,PO198SQ,
UnitedKingdom
EditorialOffices
350MainStreet,Malden,MA02148-5020,USA
9600GarsingtonRoad,Oxford,OX42DQ,UK
TheAtrium,SouthernGate,Chichester,WestSussex,PO198SQ,UK
Fordetailsofourglobaleditorialoffices,forcustomerservices,andforinformationabout
howtoapplyforpermissiontoreusethecopyrightmaterialinthisbookpleaseseeour
websiteatwww.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.
TherightofPatrickAllotobeidentifiedastheauthoroftheeditorialmaterialinthiswork
hasbeenassertedinaccordancewiththeUKCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
system,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recordingorotherwise,exceptaspermittedbytheUKCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct
1988,withoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher.
Wileyalsopublishesitsbooksinavarietyofelectronicformats.Somecontentthatappears
inprintmaynotbeavailableinelectronicbooks.
Designationsusedbycompaniestodistinguishtheirproductsareoftenclaimedas
trademarks.Allbrandnamesandproductnamesusedinthisbookaretradenames,service
marks,trademarksorregisteredtrademarksoftheirrespectiveowners.Thepublisherisnot
associatedwithanyproductorvendormentionedinthisbook.Thispublicationisdesigned
toprovideaccurateandauthoritativeinformationinregardtothesubjectmattercovered.It
issoldontheunderstandingthatthepublisherisnotengagedinrenderingprofessional
services.Ifprofessionaladviceorotherexpertassistanceisrequired,theservicesofa
competentprofessionalshouldbesought.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publicationdataisavailableforthisbook.
9781444338676(paperback)
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
Setin10ptTimes
ByMacmillanIndiaLtd
012010
CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors vii
Introduction
1 Putting Information First: Luciano Floridi and the
Philosophy of Information
PATRICK ALLO 1
Knowledge
2 The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Survival
SHERRILYN ROUSH 9
3 Knowledge Transmissibility and Pluralistic Ignorance:
A First Stab
VINCENT F. HENDRICKS 33
Agency
4 Meeting Floridi’s Challenge to Artificial Intelligence
from the Knowledge-Game Test for Self-Consciousness
SELMER BRINGSJORD 45
Semantic Information
5 Information Without Truth
ANDREA SCARANTINO AND GUALTIERO PICCININI 66
6 Information and Knowledge a` la Floridi
FRED ADAMS 84
Methodology
7 Abstraction, Law, and Freedom in Computer Science
TIMOTHY COLBURN AND GARY SHUTE 97
Metaphysics
8 Structuralism and Information
OTA´ VIO BUENO 116
Ethics
9 Why Information Ethics Must Begin with Virtue Ethics
RICHARD VOLKMAN 130
Replies
10 The Philosophy of Information: Ten Years Later
LUCIANO FLORIDI 153
Epilogue
11 Philosophy in the Information Age
TERRELL WARD BYNUM 171
Index 195
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Fred Adams is professor and chair of Linguistics and Cognitive Science
andprofessorofphilosophyattheUniversityofDelaware.Hehasmore
than a hundred publications in epistemology, philosophy of language,
philosophyofmind,andcognitivescience.Amonghisrecentpublications
is his book Bounds of Cognition (with Ken Aizawa; Wiley-Blackwell,
2008).
Patrick Allo is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation—
Flanders(FWO)whoisbasedattheCentreforLogicandPhilosophyof
Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, and he is also
affiliated with the Information Ethics Group (IEG) at the University of
Oxford. His research is on the interface between philosophy of logic,
formal epistemology, and philosophy of information.
Selmer Bringsjord is professor of cognitive science, computer science,
logic, and management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director
of the Rensselaer AI and Reasoning Laboratory. He specializes in the
logico-mathematical and philosophical foundations of AI and cognitive
science, and in building AI systems. His books include Superminds
(Kluwer),WhatRobotsCanandCan’tBe(Kluwer),ArtificialIntelligence
and Literary Creativity (with Dave Ferrucci, Erlbaum), Abortion (Hack-
ett), and Soft Wars (Penguin), a novel.
Ota´vioBuenoisprofessorofphilosophyattheUniversityofMiami.His
work focuses on the philosophies of science, mathematics, and logic. He
has published articles in Nouˆs, Mind, Philosophy of Science, Synthese,
Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Erkenntnis, Analysis, Journal of
Philosophical Logic, and Philosophia Mathematica. He edited, with
Øystein Linnebo, New Waves in Philosophy of Mathematics (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009). His work has been funded by the National Science
Foundation, among other institutions.
Terrell Ward Bynum is director of the Research Center on Computing
and Society and professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut State
University. He has been chair of the Committee on Philosophy and
ComputersoftheAmericanPhilosophicalAssociation,aswellaschairof
NOTESONCONTRIBUTORS
the Committee on Professional Ethics of the Association for Computing
Machinery. He is a recipient of the Barwise Prize of the APA, the
Weisenbaum Award of the International Association for Ethics and
Information Technology, and the Covey Award of the International
Association for Computing and Philosophy.
Timothy R. Colburn is associate professor of computer science at the
University of Minnesota—Duluth. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy
fromBrownUniversityandhisM.S.incomputersciencefromMichigan
State University. He has worked as a philosophy and computer science
professor, a software engineer, and a research scientist in artificial
intelligence for the aerospace and defense industries. He is the author
of Philosophy and Computer Science and editor of Program Verification:
Fundamental Issues in Computer Science.
Luciano Floridiisprofessorof philosophy attheUniversity ofHertford-
shire(ResearchChairinPhilosophyofInformationandUNESCOChair
in Information and Computer Ethics) and fellow of St Cross College,
University of Oxford. In 2010, he was elected fellow of the Center for
Information Policy Research, University of Wisconsin. His most recent
booksare:TheCambridgeHandbookofInformationandComputerEthics
(CUP, 2010), Information: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2010) and
The Philosophy of Information (OUP, 2011).
Vincent F.Hendricksisprofessorofformalphilosophy attheUniversity
of Copenhagen and Columbia University. He is editor in chief of the
journal Synthese, and among his many books are The Agency (forth-
coming), Mainstream and Formal Epistemology (2006), Thought2Talk
(2006), Formal Philosophy (2005), and The Convergence of Scientific
Knowledge (2001).
Gualtiero Piccinini is associate professor of philosophy at the University
ofMissouri—St.Louis. Heworks inthe philosophyof mind andrelated
sciences. Recent publications include ‘‘First-Person Data, Publicity, and
Self-Measurement’’ (Philosophers’ Imprint, 2009), ‘‘The Mind as Neural
Software? Understanding Functionalism, Computationalism, and Com-
putational Functionalism’’ (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research,
2010),and‘‘InformationProcessing,Computation,andCognition’’(with
Andrea Scarantino, Journal of Biological Physics, 2010).
Sherrilyn Roush isassociate professor of philosophy at the University of
California, Berkeley. She is the author of Tracking Truth: Knowledge,
Evidence,andScience(Oxford,2005)andmorerecentlyof‘‘Randomized
Controlled Trials and the Flow of Information,’’ ‘‘Second-Guessing: A
Self-HelpManual,’’‘‘ClosureonSkepticism,’’and‘‘OptimismAboutthe
vii
NOTESONCONTRIBUTORS
Pessimistic Induction.’’ Her main current project is on fallibility, self-
doubt,andjustifiedbelief,whichhasledtoasecond-ordergeneralization
of Bayesianism that allows us coherently to acknowledge and adjust for
information about our unreliability.
Andrea Scarantino is assistant professor of philosophy at Georgia State
University. He works in the philosophy of mind, with primary focus on
emotions. Recent publications include ‘‘Insights and Blindspots of the
Cognitivist Theory of Emotions’’ (British Journal for the Philosophy of
Science), ‘‘Core Affect and Natural Affective Kinds’’ (Philosophy of
Science), and ‘‘Computation vs. Information Processing: Why Their
Difference Matters to Cognitive Science’’ (with Gualtiero Piccinini,
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science).
Gary M. Shute is associate professor of computer science at the
University of Minnesota—Duluth. He has a B.A. in mathematics from
South Dakota State University and a Ph.D. in mathematics from
Michigan State University. He has taught a wide variety of computer
science courses, including machine organization, computer architecture,
operating systems, computer networks, data structures, software engi-
neering, and object-oriented design. More recently, he has focused on
understandingthehumanmindanditsabilitytomakesenseoftheworld.
Richard Volkman is professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut
State University and associate director of the Research Center on
ComputingandSociety.Hisresearchevaluatestheimpactofinformation
technologies on our abilities to lead the good life. Since the relevant
information is decentralized, tacit, and local, this project involves
articulatingindividualistmoralandpoliticalphilosophyfortheinforma-
tion age and addressing the associated issues, such as intellectual
property, identity, privacy, and digital culture.
viii
1
PUTTING INFORMATION FIRST:
LUCIANOFLORIDIANDTHEPHILOSOPHYOFINFORMATION
PATRICK ALLO
This collection of chapters is devoted to Luciano Floridi’s contributions
to the philosophy of information. As Floridi explains in his replies near
theendofthecollection,hisownworkduringthepasttenyearshasbeen
almostco-extensivewiththephilosophyofinformation.Somemightfind
this claim problematic. After all, doesn’t the philosophy of information
goallthewaybacktoLeibniz?Orshouldn’tweacknowledgethecrucial
role played by Wiener, Turing, Simon, Dretske, and many other fathers
of the philosophy of information? Of course, the informational turn in
philosophycannotbereducedtoworkdoneinthepastdecade,letalone
work done by one person (see the epilogue by Terrell Ward Bynum and
theconcludingsectionofFloridi’sreplies).Yet,whatIwanttoemphasise
is that while there has been a clearly discernible informational turn in
recent (and not so recent) philosophy, Floridi gave that turn a more
radical twist by claiming that taking the informational turn means
redefiningphilosophy.Thisiswhythereisaconceptionofthephilosophy
of information that Floridi may rightly call his own.
Inthisintroduction,Iwanttodotwothings:situatethecontributions
tothiscollectioninthebroadercontextofthephilosophyofinformation,
andsaysomethingmoregeneralaboutFloridi’suniqueunderstandingof
what the philosophy of information is (or should be). I’ll start with the
latter,andthenusemysketchofthephilosophyofinformationasamap
to situate the various chapters.
Let’s start with an analogy. The philosophy of information is much
likethephilosophyofprobability.Thetwohavesimilarsubjectmatter,a
mathematically well-understood notion, but are stuck with widely diver-
gent and often incompatible interpretations: chances, frequencies, sub-
jective probabilities, propensities, and so on, for the former; qualitative,
quantitative,syntactical,semantical,andsoon,forthelatter.Ifthereisa
core notion of information, then that core is composed only of formal
properties, with Shannon’s communication theory doing the unifying
work. Likewise, classical probabilities satisfy the Kolmogorov axioms,
but these do not settle what probabilities are. In both cases, the
unification doesn’t immediately extend beyond the logico-mathematical
Putting Information First: Luciano Floridi and the Philosophy of Information Edited by Patrick Allo
© 2010 The Authors
Book compilation © 2010 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Metaphilosophy LLC
2 PATRICKALLO
framework.Wecanexpandthisanalogyevenfurther.Thephilosophyof
probability isn’t just about interpretations but also covers philosophical
applications of probability theory like Bayesian epistemology and philo-
sophical issues that arise from the application of probability theory.
Similarly, the philosophy of information isn’t exclusively about the
concepts of information and computation, it is also concerned with
applications of informational and computational methods and models
to philosophical problems, as exemplified in this definition by Floridi:
[T]he philosophical field concerned with (a) the critical investigation of the
conceptualnatureandbasicprinciplesofinformation,includingitsdynamics,
utilisation, and sciences, and (b) the elaboration and application of informa-
tion-theoreticandcomputationalmethodologiestophilosophicalproblems.
(Floridi2002,137)
Suchapplicationsinclude,forexample,theformulationofaninformation-
based epistemology(Floridi 2006 and forthcoming), the use of the notion
ofstronglysemanticinformationinananalysisofrelevance(Floridi2008a),
and the defence of an informational ontology as a means to resolve a
centraldebatebetween two brands of structural realism (Floridi 2008b).
So far, the analogy seems quite compelling. When compared to the
picture of the philosophy of information that arises from a recent
handbook(vanBenthemandAdriaans2008),theanalogyisinfactquite
accurate. This is because the philosophy of information is most com-
monly understood as referring either to a number of philosophies of
information or to the philosophical study of different formal theories of
information.WhenFloridireferstothephilosophyofinformation,hehas
somethingquitedifferentinmind,somethingthatisatoncemorespecific,
largerinscope,andmore ambitious. Inshort,hethinksthatthereisjust
one philosophy of information, that it doesn’t apply merely to the study
ofinformationinthenarrowsense(i.e.,thetechnicalnotion),andthatits
ultimate goal is to transform the nature of philosophical theorising.
Clearly,thephilosophyofprobabilitydoesn’thaveanyofthesefeatures.
Thisiswhytheanalogyisinstructive.Itillustrates whereFloridi’suseof
the label ‘‘philosophy of information’’ diverges from the generic use of
that label. Unless otherwise stated, I use the term ‘‘philosophy of
information’’ (PI) in this introduction in the sense intended by Floridi.
Let me illustrate the specificity of PI by means of two common
misconceptions about it. Misconceptions about PI often go hand in
hand with the objection that there is no such thing as the philosophy of
information.Thisdoesn’tmeanthatallthesemisconceptionsareactually
found in print. Though some are inspired by actual opinions, they are
betterthoughtofastypicalinstancesofamore generalattitude. Inmost
cases, the relevant objections are right about specific features of PI but
misconstrue or underestimate the range of the whole enterprise.