intercultural information ethics rafael capurro international center for information ethics (icie)...

Intercultural Information EthicsRafael CapurroInternational Center for Information Ethics (ICIE)

Islamic World Science Citation Center(ISC) andRegional Information Center for Science and Technology(RICeST)Shiraz, Septermber 30, 2014

Capurro: Intercultural Information Ethics

Introduction

The following presentation is based on

Chapter 2 of Rafael Capurro, Michael Eldred and Daniel Nagel: IT and Privacy from an Ethical Perspective: Digital Whoness: Identity, Privacy and Freedom in the Cyberworld. In Johannes Buchmann (ed.)Internet Privacy. Acatech Studie, Berlin: September 2012, pp. 63-142. http://www.acatech.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Baumstruktur_nach_Website/Acatech/root/de/Publikationen/Projektberichte/acatech_STUDIE_Internet_Privacy_WEB.pdfAbridged version ofRafael Capurro, Michael Eldred and Daniel Nagel:Digital Whoness: Identity, Privacy and Freedom in the Cyberworld. Frankfurt 2013. Extensive parts ca be previewedhere

As well as on my Notes on Greek, Latin, Arabic and Persian Roots of the Concept of Informationhttp://www.capurro.de/iran.html


IntroductionRecent research in information ethics shows that the notion and practices of privacy vary in different cultural traditions, thus having an impact also on digitally mediated whoness and freedom.


IntroductionThis intercultural discussion is still in its initial stages with regard to the Far East and also to Islamic, African and Latin American cultures, just as it is in comparative studies between, for instance, Europe and the United States as addressed, for instance, by Helen Nissenbaum and Beate Rssler.


IntroductionHow and as whom we reveal and conceal ourselves and our selves is not just an abstract conceptual matter, but is always concretized and rooted in cultural traditions.


IntroductionWhat is common and what is different shines forth from different perspectives that in some cases appear to be incompatible, although not necessarily contradictory.


IntroductionBut even in these cases, as we shall see in the following analyses, various options for common practices and regulations are possible. The emphasis on the latter should not overlook, however, the deeper cultural layers as well as the foundational narratives on privacy and publicness.


IntroductionWe are still far from a global digital culture of mutual respect, validation and appreciation based on trust with regard to such cultural differences.


IntroductionTrust is engendered by an understanding of the otherness of the other(s) self/selves, enabling new forms of interplay between personal and socio-cultural whoness and opening new spaces of freedom to show ourselves and our selves off and also withdraw from such selfdisplay in both the cyberworld and the physical world.


The Far EastJapanBefore addressing the key issue of denial of self (Musi), Nakada and Tamura analyze the framework that enables a proper understanding of the Japanese self or Japanese minds, and of the view of privacy and publicness from this Japanese perspective. They start by explaining a dichotomy between Seken and Shakai in Japanese minds.


The Far EastShakai means the principles and values adopted from the Far West, i.e. from Western modernity,Seken means the traditional Japanese customs as shaped by Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism. Ikai which is the aspect of the world from which evils, disasters, crimes, and impurity emerge.


The Far EastThailandIn Hongladaroms view, the fact that Buddhism rejects the individual self does not mean that it rejects privacy. Privacy as practised in everyday life is not denied in Buddhism. It is in fact justified as an instrument for the end of living harmoniously in line with democratic ideals. But from the ultimate perspective of a Buddha, privacy just makes no sense whatsoever.


The Far EastViolations of privacy are based on the three mental defilements (kleshas), namely greed, anger and delusion, the antidote being to cultivate love and compassion. Compassion is the basic mood of Buddhist experience of the uniqueness of the world and our existence that we have to care for.


The Far EastChinaThe Chinese ethicist, L Yao-Huai, writes, In the Chinese cultural tradition, ethicists pay special attention to the concept of Shen Du. [] Shen Du means that a superior man must be watchful over himself when he is alone.


The Far EastAccording to L, Shen Du is a key notion when dealing with the question of the self, particularly within the context of the cyberworld, since it addresses the question of reducing proactively [] the number of online activities that violate legal frameworks.


The Far EastL points to the influence of Western individual-oriented thinking on privacy with regard to respect and informed consent, while at the same time the right to privacy from a traditional Chinese perspective is conceived as being based on social requirements (security of society, stability of the social order).


The Far EastA basic issue common to Far East cultures involves the practice of indirect speech, i.e. of the self concealing and at the same time revealing herself through language or, more precisely, through silence.


Latin AmericaLatin American cultures came about through the violent encounter between indigenous traditions and nascent European modernity.


Latin AmericaIndigenous collectivism faced premodern, particularly scholastic thinking, that praised the individual as a person no less than liberal traditions do, which are based on the idea(l)s of work, private property, competition and technology.


Latin AmericaAs the Argentinean philosopher, Rodolfo Kusch, writes, The ways of life of the Indian and the well-off city dweller are impermeable to each other. On the one hand, the Indian retains the structure of an ancient form of thinking, a thousand years old, and on the other, the city dweller renews his way of thinking every ten years.


Latin AmericaThis ancient form of thinking can be grasped with regard to the concept of reciprocity. Indigenous people were not properly remunerated for their work, because everything was taken by the cacique (or mallkus) [] the indigenous worker is only repaid with food.


Latin AmericaThe equivalent of reciprocity in Aymara is ayni, which means the one obligated to work for another who worked for him


Latin AmericaIf the indigenous worker was obliged to give everything he produced to the Inca, but not to the Spaniards, there was nevertheless a reciprocity from the side of the Inca, namely the obligation to refrain from interfering with the stockroom of the domestic sphere.


Latin AmericaThis dichotomy between the public and the private sphere in Inca culture has a parallel in the Greek dichotomy between agora and oikos., objectified world.


Latin AmericaThe domestic sphere of the Inca worker was no less important for his self that the obligation to give his powers and the products of his work to the mallku, or chief.


Latin AmericaThe system underlying this reciprocity was not contractual, but based on the pacha or mother earth as something prior to the separation of a subject from an outside.


Latin AmericaThe Latin American who is just as much an indigenous person as an urban inhabitant.


AfricaThe African philosopher, Mogobe Ramose, maintains that ubuntu is the central concept of social and political organization in African philosophy, particularly among the Bantu-speaking peoples. It consists of the principles of sharing and caring for one another.


AfricaRamose interprets two maxims to be found in almost all indigenous African languages, namely: Motho ke motho ka batho and Feta kgomo tschware motho. The first maxim means that to be human is to affirm ones humanity by recognizing the humanity of others and, on that basis, to establish humane respectful relations with them.


AfricaAccordingly, it is ubuntu which constitutes the core meaning of the aphorism. The second maxim signifies, that if and when one is faced with a decisive choice between wealth and the preservation of life of another human being, then one should opt for the preservation of life.


AfricaA detailed analysis of the relationship between ubuntu and privacy was provided by Olinger et al. They write, The African worldview driving much of African values and social thinking is Ubuntu (Broodryk, 2004).


AfricaThe Ubuntu worldview has been recognized as the primary reason that South Africa has managed to successfully transfer power from a white minority government to a majority-rule government without bloodshed (Murithi, 2000).


AfricaThe South African government will attempt to draft a Data Privacy Bill and strike an appropriate balance within the context of African values and an African worldview.


AfricaAccording to Broodryk, ubuntu is an African worldview based on values of intense humaneness, caring, respect, compassion, and associated Africa is culturally a complex continent. The issue of privacy in Africa from an ethical and intercultural perspective is only now being put on the agenda. This applies especially to the Arab countries in North Africa.


IranWhat were the major changes in the principles, norms and values of communication in pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran and how were and are such changes reflected in ethical thinking in Iran today?Is there an information ethics in Iran in dialogue with other ethical traditions and vice versa?


IranWhat concepts of message and messenger were used in the Arabic and Persian pre-Islamic and Islamic traditions?


IranInformation Technology and Technologies of the Self.Persian translationby Mohammad Khandan. InJournal of Librarianship. A Quarterly Journal on Academic Librarianship. Vol. 39 (Spring & Summer) 2005, pp. 77-93


IranAngeletics: a message theory.Persian translationby Mohammad Khandan. in: Mohammad Khandan (Ed.)Epistemological Explorations in the Realm of Information Studies. Tehran: Chapar (2010).


IranWhat is angeletics?Persian translationby Mohammad Khandan. In:Science Communication.The monthly journal ofIrandoc.Vol. 45, September-October 2009.


IranRafael CapurroJohn Holgate (eds.).Messages and Messengers. Angeleticsas an Approach to the Phenomenology of Communication. Munich 2011.


IranDarius I, the Great c.550486 BC


Irancreated the Persian Royal Road


Iranpraised by Herodotus - c. 485 Halicarnassus - 424 BC


Iran"There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"[...] "sometimes thought of as the United States Postal Service creed."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Road


IranHerodotus, History, Book 8, Urania: 98. [1] . .


ConclusionHomi Bhabha, director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University, has proposed a global ethics that extends hospitality to all those who lost their place where they belong due to an historical trauma, injustice, genocide or death.


ConclusionPrivacy understood from the perspective of whoness in the digitized cyberworld calls for an ethics of reciprocal hospitality, not only with regard to diverse ethical norms and principles, but also with regard to those who are marginalized in a global society in which digital technology has a dominating presence.


ConclusionIntercultural information ethics adopts a critical stance toward all kinds of destruction of the human habitat in the world, particularly such ways of thinking and life-practices that exclude others from their use or impose on them a particular way of playing out the interplay of whoness, thus thwarting their becoming free selves.


ConclusionThe thoughtful and practically oriented search for common values and principles should not overlook or forget the complexity and variety of human cultures that are a genuine expression of humaneness, and not something to be overcome.


ConclusionThis concerns, in particular, the notion of privacy conceived as what is proper to human self-understanding in being able to withdraw from others gaze and lead ones own life shared with certain freely chosen others.


ConclusionAn intercultural view of privacy must pay attention to what is in between cultures, allowing the individually and socially moulded self to transform and enrich its identity through the cultural interplay both within and between cultures.


Conclusion


intercultural information ethics rafael capurro international center for information ethics (icie)...

Documents

version ofrafael capurro

practices of privacy

digital whoness

internet privacy

different cultural traditions

sociocultural whoness

mediated whoness

cultural differences