Toward a New Civilization: Ecological Civilization …
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between man and natural objects or even nature as a whole, and everyone is related
with nature. All life forms are entitled to a non-quantifiable universal right. No
biological specie has more right to live and blossom than other species. Ecological
philosophers don’t think there is as much a difference between humans and unhuman
species as claimed by Descartes and Kant, but hold that unhuman species are qualified
to share the same moral community as man.
Information philosophers reject subject-object dichotomy based on the achievements of AI technologies. Luciano Floridi, one of the most active information
philosophers in modern world, thinks the earth is changing into an info-sphere or has
been such all the time. In this info-sphere, intelligence is not exclusive to man, or
man is not “unique” as far as intelligence is concerned. Nowadays people have come
to accept the post-Turing idea of “self”—we are not lonely “agents” on an island
like Robinson, but are interconnected and inter-embedded inforgs (a new coinage)
in the info-sphere that we share with other information agents, both natural and
artificial, who process information logically and independently. Natural agents refer
to unhuman species while artificial agents refer to various intelligent machinery
or robots. We can see that after the Turing revolution, concepts like subjects and
subjectivity emphasized by philosophers like Descartes, Kant and Sartre became
unimportant and made place for notions like agents and agency. According to Kant,
Sartre and their likes, only man is the subject and only man has subjectivity; but in
the opinion of information philosophers, all animals (especially advanced animals
including man) and intelligent machinery are agents, and they have agency. Agents
are those that can interact with other beings. They admit other beings’ equal status as
themselves and experience their identity and freedom by placing themselves among
other beings.
In this sense, information philosophers and ecological philosophers share the view
that both humans and unhuman objects have moral qualifications. While ecological
philosophers believe ecosystem has moral qualifications and man should protect the
health of ecosystem out of moral consciousness, information philosophers think both
unhuman animals and intelligent machinery are morally qualified agents that should
be kindly treated by man as well. Some information philosophers also endorse energy
conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection. Hawken asserted the
transition from material economy to information economy out of considerations for
environmental protection. Floridi said one of information philosophy’s tasks is to
build a moral framework in which the human inforgs, as part of the info-sphere,
regard the sphere as a new environment worthy of moral attention and care. This
moral framework has to explicitly reveal and cope with the unseen challenges in the
new environment. It must be an Environmental ethics about the general info-sphere.
This overall environmentalism (general, inclusive as well as artificial) sets to change
our self-consciousness and realistic roles, considers what is worthy of our respect
and care, and thinks of how to bring natural and artificial objects into an alliance.
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between man and natural objects or even nature as a whole, and everyone is related
with nature. All life forms are entitled to a non-quantifiable universal right. No
biological specie has more right to live and blossom than other species. Ecological
philosophers don’t think there is as much a difference between humans and unhuman
species as claimed by Descartes and Kant, but hold that unhuman species are qualified
to share the same moral community as man.
Information philosophers reject subject-object dichotomy based on the achievements of AI technologies. Luciano Floridi, one of the most active information
philosophers in modern world, thinks the earth is changing into an info-sphere or has
been such all the time. In this info-sphere, intelligence is not exclusive to man, or
man is not “unique” as far as intelligence is concerned. Nowadays people have come
to accept the post-Turing idea of “self”—we are not lonely “agents” on an island
like Robinson, but are interconnected and inter-embedded inforgs (a new coinage)
in the info-sphere that we share with other information agents, both natural and
artificial, who process information logically and independently. Natural agents refer
to unhuman species while artificial agents refer to various intelligent machinery
or robots. We can see that after the Turing revolution, concepts like subjects and
subjectivity emphasized by philosophers like Descartes, Kant and Sartre became
unimportant and made place for notions like agents and agency. According to Kant,
Sartre and their likes, only man is the subject and only man has subjectivity; but in
the opinion of information philosophers, all animals (especially advanced animals
including man) and intelligent machinery are agents, and they have agency. Agents
are those that can interact with other beings. They admit other beings’ equal status as
themselves and experience their identity and freedom by placing themselves among
other beings.
In this sense, information philosophers and ecological philosophers share the view
that both humans and unhuman objects have moral qualifications. While ecological
philosophers believe ecosystem has moral qualifications and man should protect the
health of ecosystem out of moral consciousness, information philosophers think both
unhuman animals and intelligent machinery are morally qualified agents that should
be kindly treated by man as well. Some information philosophers also endorse energy
conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection. Hawken asserted the
transition from material economy to information economy out of considerations for
environmental protection. Floridi said one of information philosophy’s tasks is to
build a moral framework in which the human inforgs, as part of the info-sphere,
regard the sphere as a new environment worthy of moral attention and care. This
moral framework has to explicitly reveal and cope with the unseen challenges in the
new environment. It must be an Environmental ethics about the general info-sphere.
This overall environmentalism (general, inclusive as well as artificial) sets to change
our self-consciousness and realistic roles, considers what is worthy of our respect
and care, and thinks of how to bring natural and artificial objects into an alliance.