The Logic of Information: A Theory of Philosophy as Conceptual Design

Author: Luciano Floridi

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Publication Date: January 21, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0192570277

In this groundbreaking work, Luciano Floridi introduces a novel perspective on philosophy, viewing it as conceptual design. He delves into how we create, transform, and refine the objects of our knowledge. Floridi posits that reality provides data, which are understood as constraining affordances, and these are then transformed into information, much like semantic engines. This transformation is not merely a representation but a creative process akin to cooking: while the final dish does not represent its ingredients, it uses them to create something entirely new, yet its properties fundamentally depend on those of the original ingredients.

Floridi further argues that models are interpretations and data elaborations of systems, rather than mere representations. This approach leads him to articulate a thesis that knowledge is inherently design-based, with philosophy being the ultimate form of conceptual design. The book not only stands independently from Floridi’s previous works, “The Philosophy of Information” (OUP 2011) and “The Ethics of Information” (OUP 2013), but also complements them by presenting new foundational work on the philosophy of information.