Alexandre Monnin

The advent of the Web is one of the defining technological events of the twentieth century, yet its impact on the fundamental questions of philosophy has not yet been explored, much less systematized. The Web, as today implemented on the foundations of the Internet, is broadly construed as the space of all items of interest identified by URIs. Originally a space of linked hypertext documents, today the Web is rapidly evolving as a universal platform for data and computation. Even swifter is the Web‐driven transformation of many previously unquestioned philosophical concepts of privacy, belief, intelligence, cognition, and even embodiment in surprising ways. The ensuing essays in this collection hope to explore the philosophical foundation of the World Wide Web and open the debate on whether or not the changes caused by the Web to technology and society warrant the creation of a philosophy of the Web.

The advent of the Web is one of the defining technological events of the twentieth century, yet its impact on the fundamental questions of philosophy has not yet been explored, much less systematized. The Web, as today implemented on the foundations of the Internet, is broadly construed as the space of all items of interest identified by URIs. Originally a space of linked hypertext documents, today the Web is rapidly evolving as a universal platform for data and computation. Even swifter is the Web-driven transformation of many previously unquestioned philosophical concepts of privacy, belief, intelligence, cognition, and even embodiment in surprising ways. The ensuing essays in this collection hope to explore the philosophical foundation of the World Wide Web and open the debate on whether or not the changes caused by the Web to technology and society warrant the creation of a philosophy of the Web.

Cet article examine la place qu’occupent les réflexions sur la Planétarité en les situant par rapport à deux autres attracteurs, le Terrestre et le Global. Un certain nombre de positions idéologiques contemporaines sont ainsi comparées en fonction de leur situation vis-à-vis de ces trois opérateurs. L’élément central permettant de les distinguer n’est autre que leur rapport aux techniques. Nous proposons de dépasser la difficulté à politiser les enjeux techniques et planétaires en ayant recours au concept de communs négatifs.

The advent of the Web is one of the defining technological events of the twentieth century, yet its impact on the fundamental questions of philosophy has not yet been explored, much less systematized. The Web, as today implemented on the foundations of the Internet, is broadly construed as the space of all items of interest identified by URIs. Originally a space of linked hypertext documents, today the Web is rapidly evolving as a universal platform for data and computation. Even swifter is the Web‐driven transformation of many previously unquestioned philosophical concepts of privacy, belief, intelligence, cognition, and even embodiment in surprising ways. The ensuing essays in this collection hope to explore the philosophical foundation of the World Wide Web and open the debate on whether or not the changes caused by the Web to technology and society warrant the creation of a philosophy of the Web.

The advent of the so-called Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web, for all their seemingly apparent (Floridi, 2009) differences, was instrumental in a renewed interest in questions that used to be addressed solely by the philosophy of language. Amongst these, the problem of meaning is paramount to many a Webservice. The fact that philosophical problematiques of such a magnitude as this one are brought up both in the design process and effective use of technical devices, forces us to realize that some topics are already moving from the traditional realm of theoretical questions to an area packed with innumerable “artefacts of meaning” - tagging systems among many (we will focus on these for the time being). This shift, that we’ve chosen to dub “artefactualization” elsewhere (Monnin, 2009a), bespeaks the now common coupling between philosophical questions and technological realities. In other words, a process that exhibits continuity as well as radical change and deeply subverts established views about the relationships symbolic forms and artefacts entertain with one another.

Does the centralization of the Web change both the diffusion of knowledge and the philosophical definition of knowledge itself? By exploring the origins of the Semantic Web in the philosophy of Carnap and of Google’s machine learning approach in Heidegger, we demonstrate that competing philosophical schools are deeply embedded in artificial intelligence and its evolution in the Web. Finally, we conclude that a decentralized approach to knowledge is necessary in order to bring the Web to its full potential as project for the spread of human autonomy.

Cette étude entend souligner l’influence méconnue de la pensée de Rudolf Carnap sur le développement de disciplines ou de dispositifs participant de la révolution numérique et qui, à des titres divers, poursuivent un projet apparenté à la philosophie. Nous retraçons le parcours de Carnap, marqué par deux idées majeures sur lesquelles les interprètes ont récemment attiré l’attention : le principe de tolérance et la notion d’explication ( explication ). Les développements de l’intelligence artificielle, de l’ingénierie des connaissances (ou knowledge representation ) et du Web sémantique demandent en effet à être confrontés à ces aspects saillants de la pensée carnapienne, afin d’en démontrer la pertinence mais aussi les limites.

Cette introduction invite à décadrer et à recadrer la thématique de l’effondrement, popularisée et médiatisée par la théorie dite « collapsologie », vers le plan des acteurs, des terrains, des temporalités, et des régimes d’énonciation. Nous appelons à documenter empiriquement ce que fait l’effondrement, et ce qu’en font celles et ceux à qui cette idée « fait » quelque chose. En effet, l’effondrisme pose la question des façons de se positionner non pas uniquement par rapport à une théorie, mais également par rapport à des expériences individuelles et collectives. Le dossier vise à comprendre comment la réception de la « collapsologie » donne lieu à des jeux complexes entre désemparement et capacités d’agir. L’atterrissage sur un sol anthropocénique de plus en plus critique mérite une décisive discussion collective. L’hypothèse de cette majeure est que les expériences effondristes ont une valeur d’expérimentation à cet égard, notamment en créant un zone discursive et praxique où des cultures et des expériences politiques différentes sont amenées à se rencontrer et à collaborer.

This is the first interdisciplinary exploration of the philosophical foundations of the Web, a new area of inquiry that has important implications across a range of domains. Contains twelve essays that bridge the fields of philosophy, cognitive science, and phenomenology Tackles questions such as the impact of Google on intelligence and epistemology, the philosophical status of digital objects, ethics on the Web, semantic and ontological changes caused by the Web, and the potential of the Web to serve as a genuine cognitive extension Brings together insightful new scholarship from well-known analytic and continental philosophers, such as Andy Clark and Bernard Stiegler, as well as rising scholars in "digital native" philosophy and engineering Includes an interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web

The advent of the Web is one of the defining technological events of the twentieth century, yet its impact on the fundamental questions of philosophy has not yet been explored, much less systematized. The Web, as today implemented on the foundations of the Internet, is broadly construed as the space of all items of interest identified by URIs. Originally a space of linked hypertext documents, today the Web is rapidly evolving as a universal platform for data and computation. Even swifter is the Web-driven transformation of many previously unquestioned philosophical concepts of privacy, belief, intelligence, cognition, and even embodiment in surprising ways. The ensuing essays in this collection hope to explore the philosophical foundation of the World Wide Web and open the debate on whether or not the changes caused by the Web to technology and society warrant the creation of a philosophy of the Web