Topics in the Philosophy of Information – Investigating the Philosophical Bases and Implications of Information Technologies

This Topics in the Philosophy of Information – Investigating the Philosophical Bases and Implications of Information Technologies project at University of Dundee offers expert supervision from both Philosophy and Computing. Dr Ashley Woodward (philosophy) is an established researcher who has published on the concept of information in a number of continental philosophers

Context of   Topics in the Philosophy of Information – Investigating the Philosophical Bases and Implications of Information Technologies Topics in the Philosophy of Information – Investigating the Philosophical Bases and Implications of Information Technologies project at University of Dundee University of Dundee

Philosophy of information crosses traditional divides both within philosophy itself, and between philosophy and computer science. While Floridi’s work is grounded in the analytic tradition, he positions it beyond the analytic-continental divide. French philosophers such as Raymond Ruyer and Gilbert Simondon made important developments in the area in the 1950s, and Wu Kun has pioneered a philosophy of information in China since the early 1980s. 

• The candidate could tackle any of many possible topics and problems in the philosophy of information, including (but not limited to): 

• the central problem, what is information?;

•  the relationship between information and semantic meaning; the ethics of information; the contributions of information-theoretic and computational models to epistemology; 
• the existential impact of information technologies on human life; 

• the changing image of the human brought about by information technologies; the politics of information society;  digital ontologies;s
•  the metaphysics of virtual realities; the philosophy of artificial intelligence; the concept of information in the history of philosophy; the nature of artificial agents and artificial companions.