Transcript Intercultural Information Ethics

First Japanese-Chinese Symposium
on Intercultural Information Ethics
University of Tsukuba
Japan
October 5-6, 2009
Intercultural Information Ethics
in Asia
Rafael Capurro
Steinbeis Transfer Institute – Information Ethics
http://sti-ie.de
Germany
Last update: July 13, 2009
Overview
Defining the Field
Origins
Recent Publications
The Foundational Debate
Special Issues
Future Agenda
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Defining the Field
IIE in a narrow sense: deals with the
impact of ICT on different cultures as
well as on how specific ethical ICT
issues are understood from different
cultural traditions
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Defining the Field
IIE in a broad sense: deals with
ethical questions raised by other
(than digital) information and
communication media allowing a
large historical cross-media
comparative view.
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Defining the Field
IIE explores these issues under
descriptive and normative
perspectives.
Comparative studies can be done at
a concrete or ontic level or at the
level of ontological or structural
presuppositions.
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Origins
The international debate:
– UNESCO First International Congress on
Ethical Legal, and Societal Aspects of
Digital Information, Principality of
Monaco 1997 (and subsequent
conferences)
– WSIS (Tunisia 2003, Geneva 2005)
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Origins
The academic debate:
– CATaC Conferences organized by Charles Ess
and Fay Sudweeks since 1998
– ETHICOMP Conferences organized by Simon
Rogerson since 1995
– CEPE conferences (since 1997)
– ICIE Conference 2004: the first international
conference addressing explicitly information
ethics from an intercultural perspective
– Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics:
international conference 2005
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Recent Publications
Soraj Hongladarom & Charles Ess
(Eds.), „Information Technology
Ethics Cultural Perspectives“ (2007)
Rafael Capurro, Johannes Frühbauer,
Thomas Hausmanninger (Eds.),
„Localizing the Internet: ethical
aspects in intercultural perspective“
(2007)
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The Foundational Debate
Charles Ess‘ „global information
ethics“:
– avoiding imperialistic homogenization
which preserving the irreducible
differences between cultures and people
– Western Ethics and Confucian thought:
„resonance“ and „harmony“
– „pros hen“ robust pluralism
– Between irreducibility and
complementarity
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The Foundational Debate
Toru Nishigaki:
– The Western idea of a „coherent self“ and the
Buddhist questionning of this idea.
– The Western search for universal values and
the „doing away of conventional or universal
interpretations of the meanings of words“ in
ZEN.
– Cognition as representation vs. „enactment“ of
the history of actions of a subject in the world
– Ethics as observer-dependent reflection on
moral norms („fundamental informatics“).
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The Foundational Debate
Bernd Frohmann:
– „A philosophical ethos seeks contingencies and
singularities rather than universal
determinants, which block the aim of getting“
„free of oneself.“
– Aim of IIE: careful situational analysis and
critical appraisal on the way(s) computers
control societies.
– Develop strategies to become „digitally
imperceptible“.
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The Foundational Debate
Rafael Capurro:
– IIE between mono- and meta-cultural ethical
claims: intertwinning „thick“ and „thin“ ethical
arguments (Michael Walzer)
– „direct“ and „indirect speech“ in relation to
information society
– „hothen“ („from“) approach: the question of
the source(s) of ethical norms, particularly the
experience(s) of the facticity of the world and
human existence
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Special Issues
Cultural Diversity
Human Rights
Education
Data protection (safety and security)
Socio-economic development
Political Participation
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Future Agenda
Which are the most relevant IIE issues
in China and Japan today?
What kind of methodology could be
used for common IIE studies?
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Future Agenda
What kind of historical studies in IIE
could be done particulary with regard
to classical authors?
What kind of comparative IIE studies
between different epochs in China
and Japan could be done?
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Future Agenda
How can common research in IIE in
Asia be organized?
Internet Portal (in
Chinese/Japanese/English)
Workshops and Congresses
Journal of Asia IIE
Common research projects
Cooperation with other IE
organizations
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