18.583 knowledge, wisdom, data, information

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 583.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
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         Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 06:36:06 +0000
         From: Charles Ess <cmess_at_drury.edu>
         Subject: Re: 18.577 knowledge, wisdom, data, information

Cher HUMANISTs,

as a follow-up on the thread on data, information, etc.

Willard has most helpfully suggested that someone write a Ph.D. on these
topics - excellent idea! For that someone, I would add 2.5 references to
the excellent bibliography Willard contributed on 9. February.

1. Luciano Floridi has a chapter in his Blackwell's Guide to the Philosophy
of Information, titled, appropriately enough, "Information":
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~floridi/blackwell/chapters/chapter5.pdf

2. Floridi has more recently argued for a specific view about the relation
between data and information in an article titled "Is Information Meaningful
Data?", that can be downloaded at
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~floridi/pdf/iimd.pdf

2.5 Finally, I've put up a modest documentation of a panel on Information
Ethics held last August as part of the Computers and Philosophy Conference
(CAP) at Carnegie Mellon, in which Floridi, Terrell Ward Bynum, Bernd
Carsten Stahl, Wallace Kohler, Kay Mathiesen, and May Thorseth represented
their perspectives on information ethics and helped collectively develop
something of a cognitive map of the relationships between information ethics
and other disciplines both within and beyond the boundaries of philosophy.

<http://www.drury.edu/ess/CAP04/cap04infoethics.html>

This map and overview will grow and change, of course, most immediately as
we pursue conversations with colleagues in Asia regarding expectations of
privacy and emerging data privacy protection guidelines - but as I note
there, participation and dialogue with many other geographical and cultural
domains of the globe are needed as well. Nonetheless, I hope this is at
least a useful sketch and initial orientation for those interested in
especially philosophical approaches to information ethics and allied issues.

Now, will somebody please write that dissertation? (smile)

cheers,

Charles Ess

Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230
Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435

Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/

Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
Received on Mon Feb 14 2005 - 01:44:16 EST