Combining careful scholarship and lucid exposition, each chapter serves as a self-standing introduction to its topic. Supporting online resources – including an exhaustive glossary of technical terms, expanded further reading sections, and a wideranging introduction explaining the nature of the new informational paradigm in philosophy – can be found at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pci.
The Guide offers students a first foundation for understanding the philosophy of computing and information. It will also engage those general readers who are curious about the new computational and informational turn in philosophy, and researchers interested in broadening their experience.
The concept is a profound one, rooted in mathematics, yet vital to our everyday lives: DNA provides the information to create us; we learn through information fed to us; we relate to each other through information transfer—gossip, lectures, reading.
Luciano Floridi, the founder of the philosophy of information, provides a fascinating and inspirational introduction to this most fundamental of ideas. Cutting across various subjects, he reflects upon its implications on all aspects of our everyday lives from mathematics and genetics, to its social meaning and value, and its ethical implications relating to ownership, privacy, and accessibility.
