Con este ensayo el autor propone una crítica al actual principio de la necesidad de “raíces” para el ser humano. Esta expresión, que tendría que haber un carácter exclusivamente simbólico, en la cultura alemana romántica y post romántica, se hizo concreta. El hombre fue considerado un árbol, una planta y sus valores más elevados fueron expresados a través el peligroso binomio “Blut und Boden” (tierra y sangre). Por consecuencia se produjo una condena hacia el libre burgués, el ciudadano de la (...) nueva realidad urbana, y específcamente el Hebreo.Esto no quiere decir que el hombre no debe tener raíces ni pasado o tradiciones, pero que, consciente de esto, tiene que saberse liberar de su peso para proceder en sentido espacial como temporal. Al fn de moverse en el mundo, como un nómada como siempre fue, para crear cultura, que es decir dar al paisaje su propia imagen y sus valores. (shrink)

De entre los héroes sofócleos, la figura de Neoptólemo sobresale por su particular dificultad para comprometerse de manera definitiva con un curso de acción. El joven acepta llevar a cabo un engaño pergeñado por Odiseo para obtener el arco infalible de Filoctetes, quien vive hace diez años abandonado en la isla desierta de Lemnos. Pero una vez avanzada la treta, cuando se aproxima realmente al objetivo, de pronto se ve asaltado por una duda que le impide seguir adelante, de (...) manera tal que se desdibuja su posición de agente capaz de concretar el plan. Neoptólemo termina por confesar al solitario isleño el motivo fraudulento de su presencia, y, excusándose, aduce estar gobernado por una “necesidad” (v.923: anánke). En este trabajo presentaré, en primer lugar, las condiciones de emergencia y las características del plan ideado por el ingenioso rey de Ítaca; en segundo lugar, una explicación de la indecisión de Neoptólemo a partir de la particular relación entre su discurso y la realidad que pretende referir; en tercer lugar, me centraré en las derivas ontológicas del conflicto central de la obra y, finalmente, avanzaré sobre los corolarios prácticos que se siguen de lo laborado en los puntos anteriores. (shrink)

En este trabajo caracterizo y evalúo un argumento que David Miller formula contra la concepción cosmopolita de la justicia internacional. Miller afirma que la justicia cosmopolita es excesivamente demandante y consiguientemente sólo puede ser cumplida por «héroes» pero no por personas regulares. Sobre la base de estas consideraciones, Miller asegura que los principios de justicia distributiva sólo pueden tener un ámbito de aplicación nacional y que no pueden extenderse a uno global. Por mi parte, entiendo que las consideraciones psicológico-morales (...) desarrolladas por Miller son insuficientes para abandonar al cosmopolitismo y justificar la adopción de la posición nacionalista liberal. (shrink)

El artículo indaga en dos tradiciones filosóficas, la primera enfatiza la importancia de la voluntad y la segunda prefiere el entendimiento. Estas opciones antropológicas son decisivas para explicar otras cuestiones, y tiene también muchas consecuencias prácticas. Después de una exposición genealógica, estudiamos los casos de Leibniz y Spinoza porque unifican ambas dimensiones pero de manera distinta.

Heráclito rechaza el antropomorfismo en todas sus facetas y en su lugar propone filosofar desde el filo de una espada, justo en el medio de la oposición universal, es decir, afirmando y negando a la vez. Hablamos de forma y proceso, devenir y ciclos...en sentido objetivo y subjetivo, pero finalmente lo único que permanece es la espontaneidad y la trágica inocencia del Logos. Por tanto, el ser humano debe entenderlo y sintonizar con esta neutralidad ontológica –eso significa estar despierto–, (...) fluyendo y confiando en el universo inconmensurable que es su hogar. (shrink)

Hoy día es necesario entender la vida en sentido global y eso significa considerar varias dimensiones del tema al mismo tiempo: la ecológica y la biológica, pero también la técnica y la simbólica, pues vivimos –como es bien sabido– en un gran “mundo red”. La interdependencia es la clave, especialmente cuando naturaleza y cultura interactúan e integran el nuevo ecosistema del planeta Tierra como nunca antes lo hicieron, todo lo cual incluye muchos desafíos y riesgos también.Nowadays is necessary to (...) understand Life in a global way and that means toconsider several dimensions of the topic at the same time: the ecological and the biological ones, but also the technical and symbolic ones, because we are just living –as it is well known– in a great “net-world”. The interdependence is the key, above all when Nature and Culture interact and integrate the new ecosystem of the planet Earth as never they did before, and all that includes many challenges and risks too. (shrink)

Como hizo la antigua filosofía griega en su época, es necesario rescatar la idea de lo común en sentido antropológico y ecológico. Hay importantes –y a menudo postergadas- relaciones y significados en el hecho de que todos somos humanos y a la vez habitantes de este planeta, también en la era de la globalización y del cambio climático. Pero la crisis de civilización que afrontamos está destruyendo esas condiciones comunes del ser humano en política, economía y relaciones globales. Por (...) eso es urgente recordarlas y crear una forma alternativa de organización para vivir juntos. (shrink)

Este libro es mucho más que una novela histórica: por supuesto hay literatura, pero también historia y sobre todo una gran reflexión sobre el arte de vivir, en un tiempo en que el hombre estaba solo y sin dioses . El Emperador nos cuenta cómo se construye a sí mismo –operari est esse-, a partir de la unidad de ética y estética, con una combinación de conocimiento, disciplina y hedonismo. Este ensayo muestra las claves de su proyecto personal y (...) político, en torno a las ideas griegas y al ejercicio del poder romano. Lo que incluye a los cuerpos, los afectos y las acciones como conceptos desde el punto de vista de la vida cotidiana. (shrink)

El presente estudio se ocupa de las relaciones entre la forma y el fondo del discurso filosófico; más exactamente, de las implicaciones y consecuencias del texto fragmentario, tanto en sentido teórico como práctico. De manera concreta, el comentario de Lichtenberg, Nietzsche y Adorno permite rastrear en autores de una misma tradición cultural ciertos elementos de continuidad a través de perspectivas históricas y enfoques diferentes. Puede decirse que en este conjunto el pensamiento en forma fragmentaria sirve para una crítica general de (...) la modernidad desde posiciones distintas, pero también complementarias. Por último, se ofrece un boceto de lo que puede ser una teoría compleja del fragmento. (shrink)

Luciano Berio apre il suo testamento poetico, Un ricordo al futuro, con un esplicito rinvio alla tripartizione della musica operata da Boezio e durante la discussione di specifiche tematiche della musica contemporanea vi torna a più riprese. Il presente lavoro intende indagare i motivi per un tale coinvolgimento dell’autore medievale nella ricerca poetica ed estetica di uno dei più importanti rappresentanti del mondo musicale novecentesco nonché il modo in cui la teoria di Boezio viene attualizzata da Berio. Si scoprirà (...) che i problemi della musica del Novecento richiedono una profonda riflessione filosofica la quale però non può limitarsi alla sola componente teoretica e astratta, se non vuole perdere di vista la musica, e che non può limitarsi alle sole pratiche musicali se non vuole rinunciare alla propria autocoscienza. In questo senso Berio reinterpreta i tre tipi di musica, mundana, humana ed intrumentalis nella concezione boeziana per confrontarsi non solo con il grande problema del rapporto tra teoria e pratica musicale, ma anche per discutere specifiche tematiche musicali del Novecento. Luciano Berio begins his poetical testament, Remembering the future, with an explicit link to the three types of music conceived by Boezio and during the discussion of specific themes of contemporary music he returns on this item several times. The present work intends to investigate the motivation of a similar confrontation with this medieval philosopher within the poetic and aesthetic research of one of the most important representatives of nineteenth century music; on the other hand the intention is to make clear in which way he proceeds by actualizing Boezio’s theory. It will become clear that the problems of nineteenth century music necessitate a profound philosophical reflection, which can not be limited to its mere theoretical and abstract component, if it doesn’t want to miss music in itself and, on the other hand, it can not be limited to the only musical practice, if it doesn’t want to renounce on its own consciousness. In this sense Berio reinterprets the three types of music, mundana, humana and intrumentalis, in their boezian conception in order to cope not only with the one big problem of the relationship between musical theory and practice, but also in order to discuss specific musical themes of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

La asociación entre arte y literatura puede rastrearse con facilidad en la cultura occidental desde la Antigüedad grecolatina. En un contexto literario muy marcado por la retórica, Luciano de Samosata apela a menudo, en obras de distinto registro e intención, al arte y a sus representantes como metáfora y referente de la tarea del literato, orador, sofista o escritor. El objetivo de este trabajo es revisar algunos de esos textos en los que Luciano, al amparo de símiles y (...) metáforas artísticas, reflexiona sobre la técnica necesaria en la creación literaria, pero, ante todo, sobre la debida aplicación del arte de la palabra; y, también, observar cómo la técnica retórica que preside su producción y utiliza para describir imágenes pintadas, también guía su destreza compositiva sea en piezas narrativas o dialógicas. (shrink)

El presente artículo expone brevemente las circunstancias del "redescubrimiento" de la obra de Luciano en la Italia renacentista y el movimiento renovador en las letras que esto trajo consigo en el caso específico del Momus de Leon Battista Alberti. Para tal objetivo, me concentraré en el rol de Manuel Crisoloras; en los aspectos de género literario que Luciano plantea, sobre todo, en el Prometheus es in verbis, y finalmente, en cómo estos son retomados en el Momus, donde Alberti (...) se presenta como innovador de las letras latinas, pero al mismo tiempo como indirecto continuador del quehacer luciánico. (shrink)

La concepción más común de lo utópico es la de aquella entidad social que, por su misma perfección, no puede darse en la realidad. Esa concepción, que se ha impuesto en el pensamiento moderno y contemporáneo, suele aplicarse, asimismo, a la obra de Tomás Moro, Utopia, en la que se suele ver un estado perfecto pero relegado a la geografía fantástica de lo que podría ser pero nunca será, razón por la cual el humanista ha situado su sociedad (...) en una isla imaginaria. Pero esta concepción olvida los elementos auto-irónicos de la obra de Moro que excluyen una lectura que se pudiera basar en la dicotomía perfección ideal/imperfección real. Ensayamos una lectura, por tanto, más “hermenéutica” de la obra del escritor inglés. (shrink)

Necessity and sufficiency are the building blocks of all successful explanations. Yet despite their importance, these notions have been conceptually underdeveloped and inconsistently applied in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), a fast-growing research area that is so far lacking in firm theoretical foundations. Building on work in logic, probability, and causality, we establish the central role of necessity and sufficiency in XAI, unifying seemingly disparate methods in a single formal framework. We provide a sound and complete algorithm for computing explanatory factors (...) with respect to a given context, and demonstrate its flexibility and competitive performance against state of the art alternatives on various tasks. (shrink)

Technologies to rapidly alert people when they have been in contact with someone carrying the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 are part of a strategy to bring the pandemic under control. Currently, at least 47 contact-tracing apps are available globally. They are already in use in Australia, South Korea and Singapore, for instance. And many other governments are testing or considering them. Here we set out 16 questions to assess whether — and to what extent — a contact-tracing app is ethically justifiable.

The Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) literature tends to focus on bias as a problem that requires ex post solutions (e.g. fairness metrics), rather than addressing the underlying social and technical conditions that (re)produce it. In this article, we propose a complementary strategy that uses genealogy as a constructive, epistemic critique to explain algorithmic bias in terms of the conditions that enable it. We focus on XAI feature attributions (Shapley values) and counterfactual approaches as potential tools to gauge these conditions (...) and offer two main contributions. One is constructive: we develop a theoretical framework to classify these approaches according to their relevance for bias as evidence of social disparities. We draw on Pearl’s ladder of causation (Causality: models, reasoning, and inference. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, Causality, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511803161) to order these XAI approaches concerning their ability to answer fairness-relevant questions and identify fairness-relevant solutions. The other contribution is critical: we evaluate these approaches in terms of their assumptions about the role of protected characteristics in discriminatory outcomes. We achieve this by building on Kohler-Hausmann’s (Northwest Univ Law Rev 113(5):1163–1227, 2019) constructivist theory of discrimination. We derive three recommendations for XAI practitioners to develop and AI policymakers to regulate tools that address algorithmic bias in its conditions and hence mitigate its future occurrence. (shrink)

Over the past few years, there has been a proliferation of artificial intelligence strategies, released by governments around the world, that seek to maximise the benefits of AI and minimise potential harms. This article provides a comparative analysis of the European Union and the United States’ AI strategies and considers the visions of a ‘Good AI Society’ that are forwarded in key policy documents and their opportunity costs, the extent to which the implementation of each vision is living up to (...) stated aims and the consequences that these differing visions of a ‘Good AI Society’ have for transatlantic cooperation. The article concludes by comparing the ethical desirability of each vision and identifies areas where the EU, and especially the US, need to improve in order to achieve ethical outcomes and deepen cooperation. (shrink)

Common mental health disorders are rising globally, creating a strain on public healthcare systems. This has led to a renewed interest in the role that digital technologies may have for improving mental health outcomes. One result of this interest is the development and use of artificial intelligence for assessing, diagnosing, and treating mental health issues, which we refer to as ‘digital psychiatry’. This article focuses on the increasing use of digital psychiatry outside of clinical settings, in the following sectors: education, (...) employment, financial services, social media, and the digital well-being industry. We analyse the ethical risks of deploying digital psychiatry in these sectors, emphasising key problems and opportunities for public health, and offer recommendations for protecting and promoting public health and well-being in information societies. (shrink)

The world’s current model for economic development is unsustainable. It encourages high levels of resource extraction, consumption, and waste that undermine positive environmental outcomes. Transitioning to a circular economy (CE) model of development has been proposed as a sustainable alternative. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a crucial enabler for CE. It can aid in designing robust and sustainable products, facilitate new circular business models, and support the broader infrastructures needed to scale circularity. However, to date, considerations of the ethical implications of (...) using AI to achieve a transition to CE have been limited. This article addresses this gap. It outlines how AI is and can be used to transition towards CE, analyzes the ethical risks associated with using AI for this purpose, and supports some recommendations to policymakers and industry on how to minimise these risks. (shrink)

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused social and economic devastation. As the milestone of two years of ‘living with the virus’ approaches, governments and businesses are attempting to develop means of reopening society whilst still protecting public health. However, developing interventions – particularly technological interventions – that find a safe, socially acceptable, and ethically justifiable balance between these two seemingly opposing demands is extremely challenging. There is no one right solution, but the current most popular ‘solution’ is the so-called ‘COVID-19 (...) Vaccine Passport’ (also known as COVID-19 passes or certificates), the use of which may be supported by both human rights and international public health law if they are designed and implemented appropriately. (We use the term ‘Vaccine Passport’ because it has been adopted by the popular press. Though it has been used in many ways, here we use it generically to refer to a document that certifies that an individual has been vaccinated against COVID-19 and on that basis grants the bearer more liberties than to those who have not been vaccinated. Later, we will discuss why it is necessary to move beyond considering only vaccinations, which informs our preferred term of ‘COVID-19 Status Pass’.) We set out to answer the following questions: how should governments and businesses assess the risks in light of human rights, public health ethics, and digital ethics concerns which emerge from developing and deploying COVID-19 Vaccine Passports? What design decisions should businesses make when developing COVID-19 Vaccine Passports to help ensure they respect human rights, and both public health and digital ethics? Do the implications for human rights, public health, and digital ethics vary depending on where and when COVID-19 Vaccine Passports are used? What are the rights and powers of the individual to object to or seek remedy for the use of COVID-19 Vaccine Passports? How can the risks of inequalities and social division derived from the deployment of COVID-19 Vaccine Passports be avoided or mitigated? We conducted a literature review and documentary analysis, supplementing our findings with news articles where appropriate. The following pages report our results, concluding with a series of actionable recommendations for businesses, national governments, and supranational organisations. (shrink)

The modern abundance and prominence of data has led to the development of “data science” as a new field of enquiry, along with a body of epistemological reflections upon its foundations, methods, and consequences. This article provides a systematic analysis and critical review of significant open problems and debates in the epistemology of data science. We propose a partition of the epistemology of data science into the following five domains: (i) the constitution of data science; (ii) the kind of enquiry (...) that it identifies; (iii) the kinds of knowledge that data science generates; (iv) the nature and epistemological significance of “black box” problems; and (v) the relationship between data science and the philosophy of science more generally. (shrink)

In recent years, policymakers, academics, and practitioners have increasingly called for the development of global governance mechanisms for artificial intelligence (AI). This paper considers the prospects for these calls in light of two other geopolitical trends: digital sovereignty and digital expansionism. While calls for global AI governance promote the surrender of some state sovereignty over AI, digital sovereignty and expansionism seek to secure greater state control over digital technologies. To demystify the tensions between these trends and their potential consequences, we (...) undertake a case analysis of digital sovereignty and digital expansionism in China, the European Union, and the United States. We argue that the extraterritoriality embedded in these three actors’ policies and escalatory competitive narratives, particularly those from the US, will likely undermine substantive global AI governance cooperation. However, nascent areas of alignment or compromise, notably in data governance and technical standards, could prove fruitful starting points for building trust in multilateral fora, such as the G20 or United Nations. (shrink)

Recreational Drugs European Network (ReDNet) project aims to use the Psychonaut Web Mapping Project database (Psychonaut Web Mapping Group, 2009) containing novel psychoactive compounds usually not mentioned in the scientific literature and thus unknown to clinicians as a unique source of information. The database will be used to develop an integrated ICT prevention approach targeted at vulnerable individuals and focused on novel synthetic and herbal compounds and combinations. Particular care will be taken in keeping the health professionals working directly with (...) young people showing problematic behaviors regularly updated in terms of novel compounds and combinations as well. A user-friendly project website will be developed aimed primarily at delivering the information/prevention approaches, but will also be a way of communicating with project partners and relevant stakeholders (e.g. thematic forum facilities, instant messages, blogs, video chat, wikiblog, newsletters distributed via mailing list). The website will support various ICT prevention tools, including an SMS alert service. Different areas and sections will be aimed specifically at the different target groups. -/- . (shrink)

Luciano Floridi develops the first ethical framework for dealing with the new challenges posed by Information and Communication Technologies. He establishes the conceptual foundations of Information Ethics by exploring important metatheoretical and introductory issues, and answering key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest.

SÍNTESE - O artigo tematiza as chamadas provas da existência de Deus na filosofia de René Descartes. A primeira, propriamente cartesiana, parte da idéia de infinito, presente no eu, para a existência do Ser infinito; a segunda, versão cartesiana do argumento da contingentia mundi, parte da existência do eu contingente que possui a idéia para a existência de Deus; a terceira é uma reedição do argumento ontológico de Santo Anselmo.

In 1930, John Maynard Keynes published a masterpiece that should be a compulsory reading for any educated person, a short essay entitled Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (Keynes 1930, 1972).All references are from the 1931 online version of Keynes (1930) provided by Project Gutenberg, so pages are left unspecified. I am sure Keynes would have found such free access to information coherent with the philosophy of the essay. It was an attempt to see what life would be like if peace, (...) prosperity and techno-scientific developments were increasingly part of humanity’s future. Of course, things went otherwise. The Great Depression begun in the same year, and World War II soon followed. In the subsequent decades, other disasters, conflicts and crises awaited humanity. The essay became a philosophical exercise that could collect dust in the libraries. Yet the fact that history took such terrible and tragic steps back does not in any way detract from Keynes’ brilliant insights. And to. (shrink)

O uso de drogas é complexo e multicausal com impactos para as pessoas, famílias e sociedade. Este estudo investigou legislações, políticas públicas e estratégias, que possam diminuir vulnerabilidades e contribuir para os ODS. Foi realizado levantamento documental, em legislações e documentos, para análise da realidade social, a partir das experiências profissionais, e ainda levantamento bibliográfico, na BVS e LILACS, de 2016 a 2018. Observou-se que o Estado se mantém disciplinador e entre as políticas mais relevantes estão a Redução de Danos, (...) os CAPS e o Consultório de Rua, marcadas pelo empirismo, obstáculos e desafios em relação à universalidade e equidade. Estratégias intersetoriais, podem ser utilizadas para se obter melhores condições de saúde e bem-estar, saneamento e água, educação, trabalho. A promoção da saúde corrobora na redução das vulnerabilidades e equidade, com maior sensibilização e qualificação dos profissionais das redes de atenção social, para acolher a população com competência e dignidade. (shrink)

This is the revised version of an invited keynote lecture delivered at the "1st Australian Computing and Philosophy Conference". The paper is divided into two parts. The first part defends an informational approach to structural realism. It does so in three steps. First, it is shown that, within the debate about structural realism, epistemic and ontic structural realism are reconcilable. It follows that a version of OSR is defensible from a structuralist-friendly position. Second, it is argued that a version of (...) OSR is also plausible, because not all relata are logically prior to relations. Third, it is shown that a version of OSR is also applicable to both sub-observable and observable entities, by developing its ontology of structural objects in terms of informational objects. The outcome is informational structural realism, a version of OSR supporting the ontological commitment to a view of the world as the totality of informational objects dynamically interacting with each other. The paper has been discussed by several colleagues and, in the second half, ten objections that have been moved to the proposal are answered in order to clarify it further. (shrink)

The paper argues that the two best known formal logical fallacies, namely denying the antecedent (DA) and affirming the consequent (AC) are not just basic and simple errors, which prove human irrationality, but rather informational shortcuts, which may provide a quick and dirty way of extracting useful information from the environment. DA and AC are shown to be degraded versions of Bayes’ theorem, once this is stripped of some of its probabilities. The less the probabilities count, the closer these fallacies (...) become to a reasoning that is not only informationally useful but also logically valid. (shrink)

Tomassini, formerly of ECLA and the Inter-American Development Bank, and now Executive Secretary of the Univ. of Chile's Center for the Analysis of Public Policy, argues that Latin American countries need leaner, more dynamic, and more responsive state structures to match their more open, competitive, and productive economies. He links durable economic growth and efficiency to both social equity and political stability, and argues that structures and processes that facilitate access to capital and technology for all can make decisive contributions (...) in these areas"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57. (shrink)

The web is increasingly inhabited by the remains of its departed users, a phenomenon that has given rise to a burgeoning digital afterlife industry. This industry requires a framework for dealing with its ethical implications. We argue that the regulatory conventions guiding archaeological exhibitions could provide the basis for such a framework.

This article reports the findings of AI4People, an Atomium—EISMD initiative designed to lay the foundations for a “Good AI Society”. We introduce the core opportunities and risks of AI for society; present a synthesis of five ethical principles that should undergird its development and adoption; and offer 20 concrete recommendations—to assess, to develop, to incentivise, and to support good AI—which in some cases may be undertaken directly by national or supranational policy makers, while in others may be led by other (...) stakeholders. If adopted, these recommendations would serve as a firm foundation for the establishment of a Good AI Society. (shrink)

New developments in the field of communication and information technology will profoundly reshape the answers to questions of deep interest for humanity and philosophy. Who are we and what kind of relationship we establish among us? The boundaries between real life and virtual life tend to evanish. We are progressively becoming part of a global “infosphere”. This candid interview with professor Floridi try to shed some light on these issues, by considering the philosophical framework developed by the “infosphere philosopher”.

In this paper we propose an approach to multi-source belief revision where the trust or credibility assigned to informant agents can be revised. In our proposal, the credibility of each informant represented as a strict partial order among informant agents, will be maintained in a repository called credibility base. Upon arrival of new information concerning the credibility of its peers, an agent will be capable of revising this strict partial order, changing the trust assigned to its peers accordingly. Our goal (...) is to formalize a set of change operators over the credibility base: expansion, contraction, prioritized, and non-prioritized revision. These operators will provide the capability of dynamically modifying the credibility of informants considering the reliability of the information. This dynamics will reflect a new perception of trust assigned to the informant, or extend the set of informants by admitting the addition of new informant agents. (shrink)

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.

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 does so systematically, by pursuing three goals. Its metatheoretical (...) goal is to describe what the philosophy of information is, its problems, approaches, and methods. Its introductory goal is to help the reader to gain a better grasp of the complex and multifarious nature of the various concepts and phenomena related to information. Its analytic goal is to answer several key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest, arising from the investigation of semantic information. (shrink)

In 2016, the European Parliament approved the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) whose core aim is the safeguarding of information privacy, and, by corollary, human dignity. Drawing on the field of philosophical anthropology, this paper analyses various interpretations of human dignity and human exceptionalism. It concludes that privacy is essential for humans to flourish and enable individuals to build a sense of self and the world.

What is the relation between the ethics, the law, and the governance of the digital? In this article I articulate and defend what I consider the most reasonable answer.

This theme issue has the founding ambition of landscaping Data Ethics as a new branch of ethics that studies and evaluates moral problems related to data (including generation, recording, curation, processing, dissemination, sharing, and use), algorithms (including AI, artificial agents, machine learning, and robots), and corresponding practices (including responsible innovation, programming, hacking, and professional codes), in order to formulate and support morally good solutions (e.g. right conducts or right values). Data Ethics builds on the foundation provided by Computer and Information (...) Ethics but, at the same time, it refines the approach endorsed so far in this research field, by shifting the Level of Abstraction of ethical enquiries, from being information-centric to being data-centric. This shift brings into focus the different moral dimensions of all kinds of data, even the data that never translate directly into information but can be used to support actions or generate behaviours, for example. It highlights the need for ethical analyses to concentrate on the content and nature of computational operations — the interactions among hardware, software, and data — rather than on the variety of digital technologies that enables them. And it emphasises the complexity of the ethical challenges posed by Data Science. Because of such complexity, Data Ethics should be developed from the start as a macroethics, that is, as an overall framework that avoids narrow, ad hoc approaches and addresses the ethical impact and implications of Data Science and its applications within a consistent, holistic, and inclusive framework. Only as a macroethics Data Ethics will provide the solutions that can maximise the value of Data Science for our societies, for all of us, and for our environments. (shrink)

The idea of artificial intelligence for social good is gaining traction within information societies in general and the AI community in particular. It has the potential to tackle social problems through the development of AI-based solutions. Yet, to date, there is only limited understanding of what makes AI socially good in theory, what counts as AI4SG in practice, and how to reproduce its initial successes in terms of policies. This article addresses this gap by identifying seven ethical factors that are (...) essential for future AI4SG initiatives. The analysis is supported by 27 case examples of AI4SG projects. Some of these factors are almost entirely novel to AI, while the significance of other factors is heightened by the use of AI. From each of these factors, corresponding best practices are formulated which, subject to context and balance, may serve as preliminary guidelines to ensure that well-designed AI is more likely to serve the social good. (shrink)

There is no consensus yet on the definition of semantic information. This paper contributes to the current debate by criticising and revising the Standard Definition of semantic Information (SDI) as meaningful data, in favour of the Dretske‐Grice approach: meaningful and well‐formed data constitute semantic information only if they also qualify as contingently truthful. After a brief introduction, SDI is criticised for providing necessary but insufficient conditions for the definition of semantic information. SDI is incorrect because truth‐values do not supervene on (...) semantic information, and misinformation (that is, false semantic information) is not a type of semantic information, but pseudo‐information, that is not semantic information at all. This is shown by arguing that none of the reasons for interpreting misinformation as a type of semantic information is convincing, whilst there are compelling reasons to treat it as pseudo‐information. As a consequence, SDI is revised to include a necessary truth‐condition. The last section summarises the main results of the paper and indicates some interesting areas of application of the revised definition. (shrink)

This study examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) from the retail sector deal with four challenges they face when adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies: the challenge of developing well-performing CSR projects and programs, building competitive advantages based on CSR, responding to local stakeholder issues in the host countries and learning from different CSR experiences on a worldwide basis. Based on in-depth case studies of two globally leading retail MNCs (with strong operations in Latin America), the concept of Transverse CSR Management (...) emerged. Transverse CSR Management is defined as a distinctive form of organizational configuration that crosses different functional areas, country operations, and the boundaries of the firm. In particular, this article makes three main contributions: (1) we identify four central challenges faced by MNC managers when developing their CSR strategies; (2) we propose the concept of Transverse CSR Management to face these central challenges (together, at the same time) and identify its key elements (top management, external stakeholders, functional areas, and country subsidiaries); and (3) we propose four mechanisms (hierarchical, relational, cultural, and collaborative) through which the concept of Transverse CSR Management can be implemented by practicing managers. This study provides valuable insights for MNC managers in headquarters and subsidiaries on the issues they need to address in order to successfully deal with the four CSR-related challenges. (shrink)

AI, especially in the case of Deepfakes, has the capacity to undermine our confidence in the original, genuine, authentic nature of what we see and hear. And yet digital technologies, in the form of databases and other detection tools also make it easier to spot forgeries and to establish the authenticity of a work. Using the notion of ectypes, this paper discusses current conceptions of authenticity and reproduction and examines how, in the future, these might be adapted for use in (...) the digital sphere. (shrink)