Module 4 Flashcards
Background to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophy
It’s been reported that roughly 93% of nonverbal cues are missing in electronic communications.
Ludwig W.
By running certain propositions through a theory that he developed - the Theory of Descriptions - Russell believed he could get behind the grammatical structure of the proposition to reveal its logical form.
Russell’s philosophy was called “Logical Atomism”.
Vichtenstein’s early work - Tractatus Logico-Philosophocus
Proposed what came to be known as his picture theory of meaning. Later believed that this was too restrictive - it promoted a kind of absolutism; it denied us of the richness of language.
Philosophical Investigations
Wittgenstein says we need to focus on our use of words, the structure of our practice of using language, language in use.
Forms of life: represents the totality of communal activities, practices, etc., in which language-games are situated. Forms of life consist of systems, practices, and activities that bind a community together.
Language game: is meant to bring into prominence the fact that…speaking [a] language is part of an activity, or of [a culture], a form of life.
For a large class of cases - though not for all - in which we employ the word “meaning” it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language. And the meaning of a name is sometimes explained by pointing to its bearer.
“The limits of Language: Wittgenstein explains why we always misunderstand one another on the internet”
- David Auerbach
Computers could understand natural language in more or less the same way that they could understand formal logic; by interpreting them as positions that were either trust false:
How, in Auerbach’s view, has google proven to be successful with word use in search engines?
They used linguistic difficulties to their advantage. Instead of looking at semantics, or word meaning, they looked to how words were being used. As Auerbach says: Google could count the popularity of a word, see which words co-occur with others, figure out which people where use which words - anything as long as it didn’t require determining where and how one should use a word.
Auerbach’s disastrous state of Internet today
The shift to online communication, textual interactions separated from accompanying physical practices, has had a persistent and egregious warping effect on language, and one that most people don’t even understand. It has made linguistic practice more limited, more universal, and more ambiguous.
Wittgenstein: A guide in the Digital Age of Communication
- Robert Greenleaf Brice
What sorts of problems do we run into when we use these forms of communication?
How might the use of emoticons or typing acronyms aid us in disambiguating communication?
- They might help to establish not only the necessary context, but also assist in conveying sentiment without having to phrase it in what might otherwise be an ambiguous or opaque sentence.
How might Wittgenstein’s philosophy help guide us here?
Wittgenstein embraces the idea that we must view language in its relationship to a whole community. These communities, and the context within which these communities speak, help give meaning to our words.
Without tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, etc. how can we communicate effectively? How can we hope to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding?
We can:
purge - eliminating devices from our lives.
carefully craft -
embrace a new language game
As Bourree Lam recently pointed out in her article in the Atlantic, the reason why emoticons are now becoming acceptable is simple: they are useful. And as Wittgenstein repeatedly said, “meaning is use.”
Cyberethics: Privacy Rights in the Age of Surveillance - Richard Spinello
A definition and theory of privacy:
Theories of privacy often confuse the concept of privacy with the normative justification for a right to privacy.
A concept is a abstract idea or general notion. Privacy is just the act or actions of remaining private.
What about a right?
Division between natural and legal rights.
Natural rights are rights which are natural in the sense of not being artificial or man-made. These are rights deriving from nature and/or from God. These sorts of rights are deemed universal; they apply to all people at all times. They are not issued from laws or rom any particular culture or society.
Legal rights are based on a society’s customs, laws, statutes, or even legislative actions.
Brandeis and Warren
Ruth Gavison - seclusion theory
Seclusion theory defines privacy as the limitation of others’ access to an individual with three key elements. Secrecy, anonymity, and solitude.
Anonymity refers to the protection from undesired attention
Solitude is the lack of physical proximity to others
Secrecy (or confidentiality) involves limiting dissemination of knowledge about one’s self.
There are two generic sorts of privacy theories that are concerned with informational theory.
Control Theory - maintains that one had privacy if and only if one had control over information about oneself.
Restricted Access Theory - maintains that privacy amounts to restricting access to information about oneself in certain contexts.
Jim Moor and Herman Tavani argue that informational privacy becomes one of recognizing that the proper use of information must fall somewhere between the spectrum of total privacy and complete disclosure.
Spinello says: privacy exists wherever there is a capacity to shield personal data from some parties while sharing it with others.
Promoting the right to privacy as an instrumental good.
An instrumental good is a good which supports other basic human goods such as friendship, security, and freedom.
Two ways our notion of freedom can be lost:
Extrinsic loss of freedom
Intrinsic loss of freedom - without privacy, life is often less spontaneous and more measured,
Personal Information on the Internet
Zaba Search
Courts and government agencies at all levels - local, state, and federal - are increasingly making public records available websites.
Court documents were always available to anyone who bothered to go to the court house.
What is the right to be forgotten?
This is Europe’s answer to scandalous and/or embarrassing behavior that is captured online. It is a right that Europeans have to force search engines to remove particular search results. This right, says Spinello, significantly expands the scope of privacy rights.
Policy Considerations
According to Spinello, if we choose the legal solution, a comprehensive law protecting consumer privacy would most likely embody two simple values:
Notice
Choice
Opt in and Opt out. Opt in approach is where people must explicitly approve secondary (or even tertiary) uses of their personal information. Opt out maintains that people are notified that their personal data will be used for secondary purposes unless they disapprove and notify the vendor accordingly.
When information is sold and recombined online, a more thorough profile is created, and this creates the risk of manipulation by other private parties or organizations. One of the biggest problems that can occur through electronic profiling is that people can be judged out of context.
