9 - A proposed philosophico-ethical approach towards the electronic information era

Abstract

In this contribution a distinction is made between a critical philosophy approach and an acritical philosophy approach. The point is developed that the critical approach is hampered by certain serious limitations which the acritical approach tries to overcome in a constructive way. The differentiation has a specific and very significant impact on thinking about ethics and the central importance of ethics in scientific exploration as well as knowledge and information practice. The extent to which this effort is successful seems extremely promising and appropriate to the articulation of and support for current developments related to information science. Some of these developments which can be suitably accommodated by an acritical approach, and which should be central to contemporary information science as well as information work, are then briefly described with sepcial emphasis on the ethical relevance of each: reading, complexity, invention, knowledge use, virtual worlds, cyberspace, collective intelligence and human subjectivity.