Philosophical Engineering: Toward a Philosophy of the Web (Metaphilosophy) - Softcover

'A surprising number of those responsible for the technical standards of the Web have a background in Philosophy. This eclectic collection brings together diverse perspectives on how the big questions of philosophy relate to the engineered realities of the Web. How do philosophical debates about representation, semantics and reference apply to Web documents and identifiers? Could the all-pervading presence of the Web even be changing how we think?' ?Dan Brickley, Google 'This is a collection of essays that contributes to our understanding of the philosophical issues raised by the Web. The editors are to be congratulated for their constructionist methodology ("philosophical engineering") and for their "denaturalising ontology" program. Contemporary philosophy needs more of both.' ?Luciano Floridi, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

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