Ethics of information by Luciano Floridi – problem of informational privacy and morality of artificial agents

Аннотация

Introduction. The article tackles the concept of IE (information ethics), the fundamental principles of IE and its place in the contemporary philosophical discourse by Luciano Floridi which are being represented in his publication “The Ethics of Information” (2013). The purpose of the article is to elucidate the major characteristics of information ethics, to analyze the interconnection between ethics and concept of information, to consider the problems of the informational privacy and the morality of artificial agents as one of the most challenging issues which are indicated as an important part of the IE research as well. To achieve the aim mentioned above we apply the methods of comparative analysis, methods of the hermeneutic reconstruction and reinterpretation, analytical and synthetic methods. Based on the latest investigations and critical reviews it should be stressed that ethics was always considered a strictly human business and it has experienced a methodological crisis along with the whole philosophical discourse as well. As the major practical discipline, ethics deals with the ambivalent nature of human existence, its daily troubles and deepest concerns on how to be a human, its vision of the Self as a subject of a moral action and duty, therefore it regulates adequacy of norms of human behavior in society turning moral conventional norms into a law for the benefits of all. However, it should be noted that the sphere of ethical research is not restricted to human matter anymore, morality can also be extrapolated on artificial agents, an approach to ethics can be re-formulated in order to adjust it to the demands of the informational age. Information ethics (IE) can be a crucially helpful field of research with handling digital information, identity theft, informational privacy, cyber war, computing devices and developing artificial intelligence. Conclusion. After reviewing the topics mentioned above it is necessary to mention that computer science and its technological applications influenced the world’s progress in social communication, media studies, cultural life and sphere of economy, in other words, a contemporary scientific picture of the world was transformed by ICTs. Ethics is supposed to be at the center of informational operations, digital information processing, furthermore, IE (information ethics) can regulate the informational flow in different ways based on its renewed principles. Due to the exponential increase in common knowledge (Luciano Floridi), information can be a dangerous tool used for wrong purposes which make IE more relevant than ever because everyone should share a responsibility for the world we live in.