The Philosophy of Information: a Simple Introduction
The Society for the Philosophy of Information aims to inspire and promote the teaching and integration of philosophy of information in the standard undergraduate and graduate curriculum in philosophy programs. It offers resources for both dedicated courses in the philosophy of information and philosophy of information modules for courses in other areas of philosophy, such as epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, logic, ethics, and social and political philosophy. Resources include the textbook “The Philosophy of Information: a Simple Introduction”, developed and published by the SPI, as well as a database of course syllabi and other educational material. In addition, SPI aims to promote and assist in the development of interdisciplinary education initiatives that modernize undergraduate curricula by emphasizing the transformational nature of information and ICTs in society. Such initiatives should foster close interaction among the humanities, the information sciences, and the social and natural sciences, and should integrate conceptual and ethical research related to information as core element of the program.
This book serves as the main reference for an undergraduate course on Philosophy of Information. The book is written to be accessible to the typical undergraduate student of Philosophy and does not require propaedeutic courses in Logic, Epistemology or Ethics. Each chapter includes a rich collection of references for the student interested in furthering her understanding of the topics reviewed in the book.
The book covers all the main topics of the Philosophy of Information and it should be considered an overview and not a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of a philosophical area. As a consequence, ‘The Philosophy of Information: a Simple Introduction’ does not contain research material as it is not aimed at graduate students or researchers.
The book is offered for free by the team of the π Research Network: Patrick Allo, Bert Baumgaertner, Anthony Beavers, Simon D’Alfonso, Penny Driscoll, Luciano Floridi, Nir Fresco, Federico Gobbo, Carson Grubaugh, Phyllis Illari, Eric Kerr, Giuseppe Primiero, Federica Russo, Christoph Schulz, Mariarosaria Taddeo, Matteo Turilli, Orlin Vakarelov.