Philosophical Engineering: Toward a Philosophy of the Web

by Harry Halpin (editor), Alexandre Monnin (Editor)

This is the first interdisciplinary exploration of the philosophical foundations of the Web, a new area of inquiry that has important implications across a range of domains.Contains twelve essays that bridge the fields of philosophy, cognitive science, and phenomenology Tackles questions such as the impact of Google on intelligence and epistemology, the philosophical status of digital objects, ethics on the Web, semantic and ontological changes caused by the Web, and the potential of the Web to serve as a genuine cognitive extension Brings together insightful new scholarship from well-known analytic and continental philosophers, such as Andy Clark and Bernard Stiegler, as well as rising scholars in "digital native" philosophy and engineering Includes an interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web

Genres: Philosophy

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Ville Kokko · Rating 3 out of 5]

To me, this was a mixture of understandable and sensible sketches for philosophical ideas, and peculiar ramblings about ontology whose point I couldn't see (plus that afterword that was almost comically vague).

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent progressive collection of essays that attempt to understand the internet from a philosophical perspective. Though I confess I haven't read all the essay's in this collection, the ones I have read really seem to fill a void in philosophical thinking: how the internet affects our minds, our identity as individuals, our identity as collective groups, what role the technology has in the history of the human being (and how this is being affected by the inter-connectivity brought about by the web) etc.

In particular I really enjoyed Yuk Hui's essay 'What is a Digital Object?', Paul R. Smart's 'The Web-Extended Mind', the interview with Tim Berners-Lee, and Bernard Stiegler's excellent Afterward. Worth a read for anybody with interests in philosophy, technology, or indeed digital engineering.