The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

by Luciano Floridi

Overview

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have profoundly changed many aspects of life, including the nature of entertainment, work, communication, education, healthcare, industrial production and business, social relations and conflicts. They have had a radical and widespread impact on our moral lives and hence on contemporary ethical debates. The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, first published in 2010, provides an ambitious and authoritative introduction to the field, with discussions of a range of topics including privacy, ownership, freedom of speech, responsibility, technological determinism, the digital divide, cyber warfare, and online pornography. It offers an accessible and thoughtful survey of the transformations brought about by ICTs and their implications for the future of human life and society, for the evaluation of behaviour, and for the evolution of moral values and rights. It will be a valuable book for all who are interested in the ethical aspects of the information society in which we live.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521717724
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/15/2010
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Luciano Floridi is Professor and Research Chair in Philosophy of Information, University of Hertfordshire, Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford University, and UNESCO Chair in Information and Computer Ethics. His publications include Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction (1999) and The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information (2004).

Table of Contents

List of contributors vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xvi

Part I Introduction and background

1 Ethics after the Information Revolution Luciano Floridi 3

2 The historical roots of information and computer ethics Terrell Ward Bynum 20

Part II Ethical approaches

3 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics Philip Brey 41

4 The use of normative theories in computer ethics Jeroen van den Hoven 59

5 Information ethics Luciano Floridi 77

Part III Ethical issues in the information society

6 Social issues in computer ethics Bernd Carsten Stahl 101

7 Rights and computer ethics John Sullins 116

8 Conflict, security and computer ethics John Arquilla 133

9 Personal values and computer ethics Alison Adam 149

10 Global information and computer ethics Charles Ess May Thorseth 163

11 Computer ethics and applied contexts John Weckert Adam Henschke 181

Part IV Ethical issues in artificial contexts

12 The ethics of IT-artefacts Vincent Wiegel 201

13 Artificial life, artificial agents, virtual realities: technologies of autonomous agency Colin Allen 219

14 On new technologies Stephen Clarke 234

Part V Metaethics

15 The foundationalist debate in computer ethics Herman T. Tavani 251

Epilogue: The ethics of the information society in a globalized world Luciano Floridi 271

References 284

Index 313

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"...This five-part work examines difficulties in the field of information ethics and offers practical applications and criticisms... Recommended..."
—B. G. Turner, Faulkner University, CHOICE

"...This is a rich and fascinating book, bringing to interpretative debates much that has been hitherto unknown. The chapters are long and complex, and the argument is multidimensional and far-reaching."
—George Lăzăroiu, PhD, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, New York, Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice

Editorial Reviews

"...This five-part work examines difficulties in the field of information ethics and offers practical applications and criticisms... Recommended..."
—B. G. Turner, Faulkner University, CHOICE


"...This is a rich and fascinating book, bringing to interpretative debates much that has been hitherto unknown. The chapters are long and complex, and the argument is multidimensional and far-reaching."
—George Lăzăroiu, PhD, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, New York, Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice

From the Publisher