Abstract
Throughout the history of political modernity, the process of legitimation of Western society has been portrayed through the lens of human conflict. This, however, is not the only possible way of telling the story. The hypothesis set forth here is that reframing the narrative is possible and, at present, even necessary, as the impact of computing and the spread of information and communication technologies invite us to reconsider the foundations of the information society. We are being called on to revisit the nature of modern conflict and the statute of their participants, breaking away from a traditional anthropocentric view of society to embrace a new perspective that challenges human narcissism. From this perspective, we are forced to envisage a new social or natural contract for the globalized, networked information society, one that acknowledges a relevant ‘third’ perspective: namely, that of nature (Serres) or the infosphere (Floridi).
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
As will be seen in the next chapter, Floridi’s critical examination of political modernity is also based on historical reflections divided into three parts. The convergence between the two philosophers is interesting and noteworthy, since they come from different philosophical backgrounds.
- 3.
In this sense, it does not matter whether they contribute in terms of semantic or environmental information (on this point see Chap. 10). For a model of trust for networked cooperation you may see Durante, 2008.
- 4.
For instance, we cannot be held responsible for the whole chain of consequences that stems from our action. There must be a point at which the chain of (moral or legal) responsibility is interrupted; otherwise, our ethical and legal commitments or responsibilities would be unbearably supererogatory. The point at which the chain of (moral or legal) responsibility is interrupted, i.e. delimited, is the result of our free, collective choice (which is not necessarily arbitrary, but often guided by reasons and/or values), through which we give a shared (moral or legal) meaning to both freedom and responsibility.
- 5.
We have also spoken, elsewhere, of a relation of mutual implication (Durante 2011).
- 6.
We will say more on this point in the following chapter. Contrary to a longstanding tradition throughout almost all of modernity, Floridi believes that norms of coordination are not only required in a conflicting society and that even a society of angels would need adopting norms, in order to coordinate their positive intentions and behaviours (Floridi 2014a, b). Almost in the same sense, Emmanuel Levinas proposed what has been defined by Miguel Abensour as an “extravagant hypothesis” (Abensour 2006), namely, the idea that the political and legal order of a society is not based on and deduced from the hypothesis of original violence (as, for instance, in Hobbes’ political theory) but that it is based on and deduced from the hypothesis of original inclination towards justice, which humans beings attempt to translate into reality and realize (even if they can do this always only in part).Whilst the hypothesis of original violence turns out to be an implicit justification for the existing political and legal order (because the latter is by definition less violent than the former is supposed to be), the hypothesis of an original inclination towards justice requires the existing political and legal order to be more justified and to tend towards this normative dimension. For Levinas’ extravagant hypothesis, see Levinas 1969 and 1990. For a commentary about this hypothesis and its political and legal implications, see Durante 2002.
References
Abensour, M. 2006. L’extravagante hypothèse, in Levinas, collectif aux éditions Bayard, Paris, 73–105.
Amichai-Hamburger, Y., K. McKenna, and S.A. Tal. 2008, September. E-empowerment: Empowerment by the Internet, Special Issue: Internet Empowerment. Computers in Human Behaviour 24 (5): 1776–1789.
Benasayag, M., and A. del Rey. 2007. Eloge du conflit. Paris: Editions La Découverte.
Benkler, Y. 2006. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
Castells, M. 1999. The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture. Vol. 1–3. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
———. 2009. Communication Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Durante, M. 2002. Comunità e alterità nell'opera di Emmanuel Levinas: il terzo, la legge, la giustizia. Torino: Thélème.
———. 2007. Il futuro del web: etica, diritto, decentramento. Dalla sussidiarietà digitale all’economia dell’informazione in rete, Giappichelli, Torino.
———. 2010. The Value of Information as Ontological Pluralism. Knowledge, Technology & Policy 23 (1): 149–161.
———. 2011. Normativity, Constructionism, and Constraining Affordances. Etica & Politica/Ethics & Politics, Symposium on Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Information, XIII(2): 180–200.
Floridi, L. 1999. Information Ethics: On the Philosophical Foundation of Computer Ethics. Ethics and Information Technology 1: 37–56.
———. 2003. On the Intrinsic Value of Information Objects and the Infosphere. Ethics and Information Technology 4 (4): 287–304.
———. 2004a. On the Morality of Artificial Agents. Minds and Machines 14 (3): 349–379.
———. 2004b. Outline of a Theory of Strongly Semantic Information. Minds and Machines 14 (2): 197–222.
———. 2007a. A Look into the Future Impact of ICT on Our Lives. The Information Society 23 (1): 59–64.
———. 2007b. Global Information Ethics: The Importance of Being Environmentally Earnest. International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction 3 (3): 1–11.
———. 2010a. Information. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2010b. Information Ethics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, ed. L. Floridi, 77–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2011. The Philosophy of Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2014a. The Fourth Revolution. On the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Our Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. (ed.). 2014b. The Onlife Manifesto. Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era, Dordrecht: Springer.
Heidegger, M. 2004. What is called thinking? [1954]. Trans. J. Glenn Gray. New York: Harper Perennial.
Hobbes, T. 2008. Leviathan [1651]. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ihde, D. 2002. Bodies in Technology. Electronic Mediations. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
———. 2003. Postphenomenology – Again?, Working Paper n. 3, The Centre for STS Studies, Aarhus.
Kallinikos, J. 2006. The Consequences of Information. In Institutional Implications of Technological Change. Cheltenham/Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
———. 2011. Governing Through Technology. Information Artefacts and Social Practice. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Levinas, E. 1969. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority [1961]. Trans. A. Lingis. Pittsburgh: Dusquene University Press.
———. 1990. Reflections on the Philosophy of Hitlerism [1934]. Trans. S. Hand. Critical Inquiry, 17: 63–71.
Nye, J. 2008. The Powers to Lead: Soft, Hard, and Smart. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pagallo, U. 2006. Teoria giuridica della complessità. Torino: Giappichelli.
Serres, M. 1995. The Natural Contract, Trans. E. MacArthur and W. Paulson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
———. 2009. Temps des crises. Paris: Editions Le Pommier.
Simmel, G. 1964. Conflict & The Web of Group Affiliations. New York: Free Press.
Taylor, M. 2001. The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Valery, P. (1998). La crise de l’esprit. In Varieté I et II, Folio essais. Paris: Gallimard.
Wellman, B., et al. 2003. The Social Affordance of the Internet for Networked Individualism. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 8 (3.), available online.
Ziccardi, G. 2012. Resistance, Liberation Technology and Human Rights in the Digital Age. Dordrecht/Berlin: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Durante, M. (2017). Ontic Trust and the Foundation of the Information Society. In: Ethics, Law and the Politics of Information . The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1150-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1150-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1148-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1150-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)