•  165
    Reconstructing the Right to Privacy
    with G. Randolph Mayes
    Social Theory & Practice 29 (1): 1-18. 2003.
    The article undertakes to develop a theory of privacy considered as a fundamental moral right. The authors remind that the conception of the right to privacy is silent on the prospect of protecting informational privacy on consequentialist grounds. However, laws that prevent efficient marketing practices, speedy medical attention, equitable distribution of social resources, and criminal activity could all be justified by appeal to informational privacy as a fundamental right. Finally, the author…Read more
  •  99
    Intellectual Property and Copyright Ethics
    Business and Professional Ethics Journal 10 (2): 85-109. 1991.
    Philosophers have given relatively little attention to the ethical issues surrounding the nature of intellectual property in spite of the fact that for the past ten years the public policy debate over "fair use" of copyrighted materials in higher education has been heating up. This neglect is especially striking since copyright ethics are at stake in so many aspects of academic life: the photocopying of materials for classroom use and scholarly work, access to electronic texts, and the cost and …Read more
  •  57
  •  50
    Rationality and the right to privacy
    with G. Randolph Mayes
    In Daniel Bonevac (ed.), Today's Moral Issues, Mayfield Publishing. 2001.
    When tennis fan Jane Bronstein attended the 1995 U.S. Open she probably knew there was a remote chance her image would end up on television screens around the world. But she surely did not know she was at risk of becoming the object of worldwide attention on the David Letterman Show. As it happened, Letterman spotted an unflattering clip from the U.S. Open showing a heavyset Bronstein with peach juice dripping down her chin. Not only did he show the footage six times that fall, but he ridiculed …Read more
  •  44
    Ethicists don't discuss etiquette very much, in part because it has always seemed too close to the surface of social interaction and too ephemeral or conventional for theory. But I suspect that most people, even philosophers, would agree that social etiquette often reinforces and complements our ethical intuitions. For example, in social etiquette we draw a line between reasonable and normal questions to ask others and questions which pry, invade privacy, or otherwise embarrass them. A natural j…Read more
  •  43
    Plotinus and the Possibility of Non-Propositional Thought
    Ancient Philosophy 8 (2): 273-284. 1988.
  •  36
  •  27
    When professionals are asked about the value of information technology to their work, they typically give two kinds of answers. Some see the advent or arrival of sophisticated information technology as a great boon to their professional lives. For them, the only question is how soon can the technology be deployed to open up new horizons for professional activity and end dull and tedious work. Others sense more acutely the serious..
  •  26
    In this presentation, our goals are to identify some of the ways in which information technology poses a threat to librarians' professional identity and to develop a theory about the role that it should play. In the process of doing that we will identify organizational processes which may help librarians negotiate technological change, both within their profession and with their patrons. (For simplicity, we will use the phrase "information technology" to refer to contemporary trends in electroni…Read more
  •  17
    Rationality and the Right to Privacy
    with G. Randolph Mayes
    When tennis fan Jane Bronstein attended the 1995 U.S. Open she probably knew there was a remote chance her image would end up on television screens around the world. But she surely did not know she was at risk of becoming the object of worldwide attention on the David Letterman Show. As it happened, Letterman spotted an unflattering clip from the U.S. Open showing a heavyset Bronstein with peach juice dripping down her chin. Not only did he show the footage six times that fall, but he ridiculed …Read more
  •  14
    Readers of previous installments of this column will recall that I have been discussing both the general relationship between information practices and moral virtues and some specific questions about the effects of information technology, such as the "expert system," upon our ability to lead virtuous lives and have morally satisfying work. In this column, I want to take a practical turn by articulating some of the ethical considerations which might motivate workplace information policy.
  •  13
    ideals of their mission statements is often compromised. Following the ethical maxim that Aought implies can,@ business ethicists often grant that our practical obligations have to be understood against the backdrop of the relative scarcity or abundance of the business and social environment. Nothing brings on scarcity more dramatically than the total liquidation of a business=s assets. Bankruptcy protection and reorganization can, and probably should, lead businesses to cut back on some of thei…Read more
  •  11
    When businesses fail, their ability to honor agreements, uphold promises, and act on the higher ideals of their mission statements is often compromised. Following the ethical maxim that Aought implies can, @ business ethicists often grant that our practical obligations have to be understood against the backdrop of the relative scarcity or abundance of the business and social environment. Nothing brings on scarcity more dramatically than the total liquidation of a business =s assets. Bankruptcy p…Read more
  •  9
    Information Ethics for Librarians
    McFarland Publishing. 1997.
    A philosophical and practical model for approaching the ethical challenges librarians are facing is provided in this work. The moral value of information is first examined, prompting a rethinking of librarians' understanding of professional neutrality and calling for them to broaden their role as community information specialists. Organizational ethics are next covered; the authors recommend specific management styles and values appropriate to libraries. This is followed by a critical analysis o…Read more
  •  1
    Misplacing privacy
    Journal of Information Ethics 10 (2): 5-8. 2001.
  • Representation and Closure in Contemporary Philosophy of Language
    Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin. 1989.
    This dissertation examines the general problem of how to give a philosophical account of the nature of representation by looking at three specific philosophies of language and the philosophic treatment of fictional discourse. I argue that Edmund Husserl, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and J. L. Austin all try to give accounts of meaning by arguing for what I call a "closure of meaning" in language. The closure thesis is the claim that some set of criteria can exhaustively determine the ways in which langu…Read more
  • The Aesthetics and ethics of Copying
    Bloomsbury Press. 2016.
  • Naturalizing Wisdom
    In Milkowski Marcin and Talmont-Kaminski Konrad & Talmont-Kaminski Konrad (eds.), Regarding the Mind Nautrally, Cambridge Scholars Press. 2013.
  • "Provides a grounding in the philosophical, historical, and legal development of the concept of intellectual freedom by providing current thinking on a range of intellectual freedom concepts, cases, and controversies"--
  • Deep Copy Culture
    In Alfino Mark (ed.), The Aesthetics and ethics of Copying, Bloomsbury Press. 2016.
    Published in The Aesthetics and Ethics of Copying, Bloomsbury Press, October 2016.
  • Traditional vs. information management theory
    Journal of Information Ethics 7 (1): 5-9. 1998.