Toward a political philosophy of information

Mathiesen, Kay

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89824 Copy

Description

Title

Toward a political philosophy of information

Author(s)

Mathiesen, Kay

Issue Date

2015

Keyword(s)

• Philosophies of Information
• Information Science
• Librarianship
• Libraries

Date of Ingest

2016-04-07T14:42:43Z

Abstract

Many of the most pressing issues in information ethics—informational privacy, surveillance, intellectual property, access to information, and the distribution of information resources—can only be addressed at the level of global politics. This paper develops an approach to theorizing about political questions of concern to information ethics. It begins by situating a political philosophy of information within the broader field of ethics and defending a theoretical approach that is practical, person-centered, and pluralistic. The method of dialogic public reason, as articulated by John Rawls and supplemented with insights from Jürgen Habermas, is described and defended. It is argued that dialogic public reason provides a way to justify political principles in a diverse global context. The paper concludes by relating the idea of dialogic public reason to international human rights. The putative human right to intellectual property is criticized on the grounds that it does not pass the test of public reason.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

ISSN

0024-2594

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

Article

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89824

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2015.0000

Copyright and License Information

Copyright (2014) Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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