Pensare l’infosfera. La filosofia come design concettuale [Thinking about the infosphere. Philosophy as conceptual design]

Abstract

Philosophy, more than ever before, is playing an essential part in studying real-life situations that have been affected by revolutionary changes, caused by digital transformations. The so-called ‘onlife’ dimension – described by Luciano Floridi – is key to explaining our condition, where there is no longer a clear boundary between what is digital and what is real. The author emphasizes the importance of a philosophical approach as a conceptual design, keeping in mind the relevance of philosophical questioning and, at the same time, recognizing the critical role of the possible outcomes. Philosophy offers the possibility to understand the context in which we live, making us aware of effective tools to understand our time and its challenges. In other words, we need to rethink our relationship with the digital, starting from an ethical point of view, which can be the bedrock of the philosophy of information. ‘We need philosophy to make sense of the radical changes produced by the digital revolution. And we need philosophy to be practiced at its highest level for the difficulties to be faced are considerable’ (Floridi 2020, 16). This is the starting point of Luciano Floridi’s contribution, dedicated to the philosophical method. In the pages of Pensare l’infosfera. La filosofia come design concettuale [Thinking about the infosphere. Philosophy as conceptual design] the main focus is the practical role that philosophical thought is called to play in everyday life – in a human dimension in which it is difficult to perceive the boundary between reality and the digital realm. This is the meeting point between real and virtual, about which Floridi coined in another work the term onlife. This indicates the specific union between online and offline. Pensare l’infosfera is an essay resulting from The Logic of information. A theory of conceptual Design – part of a tetralogy consisting of other two volumes: The Philosophy of Information and The Ethics of Information. From Pensare l’infosfera emerges the important ability to provide a philosophical foundation to the digital world – a concept which in this case in particular refers to the sphere of information and, more generally, to the contextual presence of that two-part dimension previously mentioned, now constitutive of our relationship to reality. In stressing the need for an ethical foundation on which the philosophy of information can be based, the real elements of value upon which the basic ethical idea is founded are not outlined. Instead, what comes to the fore is an invitation to philosophers to open their eyes to what the contemporary world requires and needs – philosophical support being needed more than ever before.