Epistemic Value Theory and Information Ethics

Don Fallis

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Three of the major issues in information ethics -intellectual property, speech regulation, and privacy -concern the morality of restricting people's access to certain information. Consequently, policies in these areas have a significant impact on the amount and types of knowledge that people acquire. As a result, epistemic considerations are critical to the ethics of information policy decisions (cf. Mill, 1978 [1859]). The fact that information ethics is a part of the philosophy of information highlights this important connection with epistemology. In this paper, I illustrate how a value-theoretic approach to epistemology can help to clarify these major issues in information ethics. However, I also identify several open questions about epistemic values that need to be answered before we will be able to evaluate the epistemic consequences of many information policies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)101-117
Number of pages17
JournalMinds and Machines
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2004

Keywords

  • Epistemic value theory
  • Epistemology
  • Information ethics
  • Intellectual property
  • Philosophy of information
  • Privacy
  • Social epistemology
  • Speech regulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy
  • Artificial Intelligence

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