Hacking Digital Ethics

This book is a hack that exposes the flaws in current digital ethics by developing an exploit kit based on social theory. It redesigns digital ethics to address the problems of the global network society, arguing that the social world of meaning is based on information and must be understood as a common good rather than private property.

Format: Hardback
Length: 282 pages
Publication date: 23 April 2021
Publisher: Anthem Press

This book goes beyond a simple critique of digital ethics and instead presents itself as a hack. It employs a hacking methodology by creating an exploit kit based on cutting-edge social theory, which it then utilizes to break into the insecure legacy system upon which the discourse of digital ethics is built. This legacy system is comprised of four interdependent components: the philosophical mythology of humanism, social science critique, media scandalization, and the activities of numerous civil society organizations advocating for various forms of regulation. The hack uncovers the flaws, poor programming, and deceptive claims of current digital ethics, and, as an ethical hack, redesigns digital ethics to address the challenges of the global network society. The central theme of the book is that the social world of meaning is founded on information, which, due to its relational nature, must be perceived more as a shared resource than as private property. A digital ethics that relies on humanistic individualism cannot adequately address the issues arising from the global network society based on information. This necessitates a comprehensive reevaluation of the philosophical foundations of current digital ethics through the reimagining of ethics as a theory of governance by design.

Weight: 568g
Dimension: 158 x 237 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781785277375