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21The aim of the thesis is to defend the hypothesis that an anti- Aristotelian interpretation of the genesis of the process of knowing provides an interesting and fruitful means to understand the human never-ending search for knowledge and to answer doubts concerning the reliability of human knowledge of external reality. Such statement requires an explanation
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25The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information (edited book)Routledge. 2016.Information and communication technology occupies a central place in the modern world, with society becoming increasingly dependent on it every day. It is therefore unsurprising that it has become a growing subject area in contemporary philosophy, which relies heavily on informational concepts. _The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information_ is an outstanding reference source to the key topics and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thi…Read more
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203The rediscovery and posthumous influence of scepticismIn Richard Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism, Cambridge University Press. pp. 267. 2010.The history of the transmission, recovery and posthumous influence of ancient scepticism is a fascinating chapter in the history of ideas. An extraordinary collection of philosophical texts and some of the most challenging arguments ever devised were first lost, then only partly recovered philologically, and finally rediscovered conceptually, leaving Cicero and Sextus Empiricus as the main champions of Academic and Pyrrhonian scepticism respectively. This chapter outlines what we know about this…Read more
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573The philosophy of information: ten years laterMetaphilosophy 41 (3). 2010.: This article provides replies to, and comments on, the contributions to the special issue on the philosophy of information. It seeks to highlight con‐vergences and points of potential agreement, while offering clarifications and further details. It also answers some criticisms and replies to some objections articulated in the special issue.
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417The philosophy of informationOxford University Press. 2011.Luciano Floridi presents a book that will set the agenda for the philosophy of information. PI is the philosophical field concerned with the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. This book lays down, for the first time, the conceptual foundations for this new area of research. It d…Read more
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553The ontological interpretation of informational privacyEthics and Information Technology 7 (4). 2005.The paper outlines a new interpretation of informational privacy and of its moral value. The main theses defended are: (a) informational privacy is a function of the ontological friction in the infosphere, that is, of the forces that oppose the information flow within the space of information; (b) digital ICTs (information and communication technologies) affect the ontological friction by changing the nature of the infosphere (re-ontologization); (c) digital ICTs can therefore both decrease and …Read more
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952The method of levels of abstractionMinds and Machines 18 (3). 2008.The use of “levels of abstraction” in philosophical analysis (levelism) has recently come under attack. In this paper, I argue that a refined version of epistemological levelism should be retained as a fundamental method, called the method of levels of abstraction. After a brief introduction, in section “Some Definitions and Preliminary Examples” the nature and applicability of the epistemological method of levels of abstraction is clarified. In section “A Classic Application of the Method ofion…Read more
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244The new ethical responsibilities of internet service providersPhilosophy and Technology 24 (4): 369-370. 2011.The exponential developments of internet services and resources have brought enormous benefits, but also enormous moral and ethical challenges. This paper introduces the contributions from a research workshop, tasked with defining new ethical responsibilities for Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
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122The new grey powerPhilosophy and Technology 28 (3): 329-332. 2015.Grey power may be characterised as the ability to control events and people’s behaviour by influencing the influencers, behind the scenes. Grey power exists in every type of society and the two change together, as concauses, via a complex interchange of economic, technological and societal factors. This paper discusses the emergence of éminences grises in the modern digital age and the pressing need to gain a better understanding of their likely nature and development. The article concludes that…Read more
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579Trois leçons philosophiques de Turing et la philosophie de l’informationRue Descartes 87 (4): 157. 2015.Quand on se penche sur l’héritage philosophique de Turing, deux risques se posent. Le premier, c’est de le réduire à son test célèbre (Turing 1950). Ce qui a toutefois le mérite de la clarté. N’importe qui peut reconnaître la contribution en question et la situer dans le débat important sur la philosophie de l’intelligence artificielle. Le second risque est de le diluer dans un récit universel, faisant des idées deTuring les graines de tout ce que nous faisons et savons aujourd’hui. Ceci a l’ava…Read more
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236The latent nature of global information warfarePhilosophy and Technology 27 (3). 2014.Information has always been at the core of conflicts. When Napoleon planned to invade Italy, he duly upgraded the first telegraph network in the world, the French “semaphore”. He famously remarked that “an army marches on its stomach,” but he also knew that the same army acted on information. As Von Clausewitz once stated “by the word ‘information’ we denote all the knowledge which we have of the enemy and his country; therefore, in fact, the foundation of all our ideas of actions [in war].”I am…Read more
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233The logic of being informedLogique Et Analyse 49 (196): 433-460. 2006.One of the open problems in the philosophy of information is whether there is an information logic (IL), different from epistemic (EL) and doxastic logic (DL), which formalises the relation “a is informed that p” (Iap) satisfactorily. In this paper, the problem is solved by arguing that the axiom schemata of the normal modal logic (NML) KTB (also known as B or Br or Brouwer’s system) are well suited to formalise the relation of “being informed”. After having shown that IL can be constructed as a…Read more
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307The logic of design as a conceptual logic of informationMinds and Machines 27 (3): 495-519. 2017.In this article, I outline a logic of design of a system as a specific kind of conceptual logic of the design of the model of a system, that is, the blueprint that provides information about the system to be created. In section two, I introduce the method of levels of abstraction as a modelling tool borrowed from computer science. In section three, I use this method to clarify two main conceptual logics of information inherited from modernity: Kant’s transcendental logic of conditions of possibi…Read more
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378Turing’s imitation game: still an impossible challenge for all machines and some judges––an evaluation of the 2008 Loebner contest (review)Minds and Machines 19 (1): 145-150. 2009.An evaluation of the 2008 Loebner contest.
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832The informational nature of personal identityMinds and Machines 21 (4): 549-566. 2011.In this paper, I present an informational approach to the nature of personal identity. In “Plato and the problem of the chariot”, I use Plato’s famous metaphor of the chariot to introduce a specific problem regarding the nature of the self as an informational multiagent system: what keeps the self together as a whole and coherent unity? In “Egology and its two branches” and “Egology as synchronic individualisation”, I outline two branches of the theory of the self: one concerning the individuali…Read more
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230Turing’s imitation game: still an impossible challenge for all machines and some judgesMinds and Machines 19 (1). 2009.An Evaluation of the 2008 Loebner Contest.
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139The human projectThe Philosophers' Magazine 66 20-22. 2014.This article explores what technological unemployment might mean.
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117Telepresence: from epistemic failure to successful observabilityIn L. Magnani & R. Dossena (eds.), Computing, Philosophy and Cognition, . 2005.
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122The grafted branches of the sceptical tree. "Noli altum sapere" and Henri Estienne's latin edition of Sexti Empirici Pyrrhoniarum Hypotyposeon libri IIINouvelles de la République des Lettres 1. 1992.The Latin translation of Sextus Empiricus’ ‘Outlines of Pyrrhonism’, published by Henri Estienne in 1562, are amongst the most influential texts in the history of scepticism. And yet, we still lack a complete and detailed study of their reception in modern times. Through investigation of the emblem on the frontispiece of the book, this paper argues that Estienne’s motivations for the publication should be interpreted as essentially anti-dogmatic and humanistic in nature.
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296The diffusion of sextus empiricus's works in the renaissanceJournal of the History of Ideas 56 (1): 63-85. 1995.This paper discusses the influence of Sextus Empiricus' works on Renaissance culture and the recovery of Pyrrhonism during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It investigates what primary and secondary sources were available at the time, and who knew and made use of such sources. The article concludes that the dearth of Pyrrhonic arguments in Renaissance literature was due to the prevailing and incompatible culture of humanism rather than to a lack of interest in Sextus Empiricus’ works durin…Read more
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114Technology’s in-betweenessPhilosophy and Technology 26 (2). 2013.One of the most obvious features that characterises any technology is its in-betweeness—comprising technologies that stand in-between human users and natural affordances (natural objects, processes, or phenomena). This paper analyses technologies on the basis of their first- second- or third-order nature, and discusses how Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are creating a new externality.
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297The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement: the ethical analysis of a failure, and its lessonsEthics and Information Technology 17 (2): 165-173. 2015.The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement was originally meant to harmonise and enforce intellectual property rights provisions in existing trade agreements within a wider group of countries. This was commendable in itself, so ACTA’s failure was all the more disappointing. In this article, I wish to contribute to the post-ACTA debate by proposing a specific analysis of the ethical reasons why ACTA failed, and what we can learn from them. I argue that five kinds of objections—namely, secret negotia…Read more
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515Ética de la información: su naturaleza y alcanceIsegoría 34. 2006.En los últimos años la «Ética de la Información» ha llegado a tener sentidos distintos para los distintos investigadores que trabajan en una amplia variedad de disciplinas. Esta situación es lamentable, ya que ha producido cierta confusión sobre la naturaleza específica y el alcance de la EI. En el presente artículo se defiende una Ética de la Información que sostiene que el comportamiento y el estatus de los objetos informacionales qua objetos informacionales puede tener un significado moral qu…Read more
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358Toleration and the design of normsScience and Engineering Ethics 21 (5): 1095-1123. 2015.One of the pressing challenges we face today—in a post-Westphalian order and post-Bretton Woods world —is how to design the right kind of MAS that can take full advantage of the socio-economic and political progress made so far, while dealing successfully with the new global challenges that are undermining the best legacy of that very progress. This is the topic of the article. In it, I argue that in order to design the right kind of MAS, we need to design the right kind of norms that constitute…Read more
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636The construction of personal identities onlineMinds and Machines 21 (4): 477-479. 2011.Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are building a new habitat (infosphere) in which future generations, living in advanced information societies, will spend an increasing amount of time. This paper introduces a series of articles that explore what constitutes a personal identity online (PIO) and how, as well as to what extent, individuals can learn to create, manage and perceive their PIOs in order to facilitate a healthy and rewarding online experience (onlife).
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