Relationships, personal identity and privacy in digital ethics The course aims to analyze and critically discuss the concept of digital revolution as a "fiction" and the challenges posed by this to the interactions between communities, culture and personal identity from an anthropological and ethical point of view
The course aims to analyze the concept of the Digital Revolution as a construction of modern Western thought. Actions, narratives, visions relating to the digital world therefore lend themselves to a dense analysis, capable of revealing the functioning dynamics of each society
The course aims to analyze and critically discuss the concept of the digital revolution as a "fiction" and the challenges posed by this to the interactions between community, culture and personal identity from an anthropological and ethical point of view. The aim is to provide students with the conceptual tools to understand the impact of digital technologies on identity and human relationships.
In particular, students will learn to
- Interpret the anthropological changes of the digital revolution
- Apply the conceptual tools to concrete cases that touch the definition of personal identity
- Evaluate the problems posed by the digital revolution in privacy management
- Analyze practical cases in which the traditional vision of personal identity is being challenged by the recent technological change
- Analyze cultural products that show possible evolutions (liberating or dystopian) of the impact that new digital technologies have on our lives
The course will be divided into two parts, managed by the two teachers (Barba and Zuolo). The first part will examine the concept of digital revolution as a "construction of the imagination". We will focus in particular on the flexibility of a concept that appears ambiguous, nuanced and rather controversial. There are various possible questions, to which we will try to give an answer. Is it precisely a revolution or an evolution? Can a continuity be found with respect to other epochal changes - the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution - and if so to what extent, or is it a total break with respect to the visions, attitudes, anthropological postures of our past? If we choose the hypothesis of an evolutionary process, at what point of the path would we have reached? How does globalization interfere: is the digital revolution synonymous with it, does it accompany it, or acts as a simple background panorama? And, again, what are the ways in which this "alleged" revolution is communicated? In the second part, the impacts that the digital technological revolution have on the personal identity and privacy of people will be analyzed. From a philosophical point of view we will analyze which conceptions of personal identity can explain the current condition and we will analyze the concept of privacy, distinguishing its three components (loneliness, intimacy and anonymity) trying to understand what normative and principled remedies can be given to the problem of privacy in the digital age
Lectures with the use of multimedia supports, guided discussions in the classroom, cooperative learning group activities, individual exercises
The course will be divided into two parts: the first will consist of introductory lectures by the two teachers, the second will consist of presentations in class by the students on topics proposed during the course. In the first part, the conceptual tools of an anthropological and philosophical nature will be provided to understand the dynamics of identity constitution and reconstruction in the digital age; in the second part the students will be asked to apply these tools to specific situations or cultural products that show trends of our age. Each lesson, even in the first part, will provide ample space for debate and critical discussion with students.
At the end of the course the student will have to:
- illustrate the theoretical and methodological concepts and references covered;
- interpret the reality of social media in an anthropological key;
- deconstruct prejudices and narratives concerning the use of social media;
- argue their own original positions;
- develop links between this teaching and other disciplines of the course of study.
The course program also includes the presentation and discussion of the following topics:
how to CONVERSATE
how to EDUCATE
how to INFORM
how to READ
how to play
in the digital field.
For attendees
- M. Bocchiola, Privacy. Filosofia e politica di un concetto inesistente, Roma, Luiss university press 2014 (capp. 3-5)
-L. Floridi, La quarta rivoluzione. Come l’infosfera sta trasformando il mondo, Milano Raffaello Cortina 2017 (capp. 1-7)
- S. Turkle, La conversazione necessaria, Einaudi, Torino, 2016.
-One of the following recommended texts:
-G. Balbi, L’ultima ideologia. Breve storia della rivoluzione digitale, Laterza, Bari-Roma, 2022.
- P. Artuso, M. Codogno, Scimmie digitali. Informazione e conoscenza al tempo di Internet, Armando editore, Roma, 2018.
- R. Baronciani, Nella tana del Bianconiglio. Saggio sulla mutazione digitale, effequ, Orbetello, 2014.
- T. H. Eriksen, Fuori controllo. Un’antropologia del cambiamento accelerato, Einaudi, Torino, 2017.
- K. Goldsmith, Perdere tempo su Internet, Einaudi, Torino, 2017.
- D. Mazzucco, Propaganda pop. Il fascino del consenso nell’era digitale, Effequ, Orbetello, 2016.
- D. Miller, Cose che parlano di noi, il Mulino, Bologna, 2014.
- D. Sisto, La morte si fa social. Immortalità, memoria e lutto nell’epoca della cultura digitale, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri 2018.
- V. Tripodi, Etica delle tecniche. Una filosofia per progettare il futuro, Milano, Mondadori, 2021.
- C. Tuniz, P.Tiberi Vipraio, La scimmia vestita. Dalle tribù di primati all’intelligenza artificiale,
Carocci, Roma, 2018.
FOR NOT ATTENDING, IN ADDITION:
-S. Turkle, La conversazione necessaria, Einaudi, Torino, 2016. Altri testi consigliati: - P. Artuso, M. Codogno, Scimmie digitali. Informazione e conoscenza al tempo di Internet, Armando editore, Roma, 2018 - R. Baronciani, Nella tana del Bianconiglio. Saggio sulla mutazione digitale, effequ, Orbetello, 2014 - T. H. Eriksen, Fuori controllo. Un’antropologia del cambiamento accelerato, Einaudi, Torino, 2017 - K. Goldsmith, Perdere tempo su Internet, Einaudi, Torino, 2017 - D. Mazzucco, Propaganda pop. Il fascino del consenso nell’era digitale, Effequ, Orbetello, 2016. - D. Miller, Cose che parlano di noi, il Mulino, Bologna, 2014 - C. Tuniz, P.Tiberi Vipraio, La scimmia vestita. Dalle tribù di primati all’intelligenza artificiale, Carocci, Roma, 2018
Ricevimento: In attendance, at a time to be determined.
Ricevimento: Write an email to federico.zuolo@unige.it
SALVATORE BRUNO BARBA (President)
MARCO AIME
GAIA COTTINO (President Substitute)
First semester, starting from the first useful date of September
Oral examination
In addition to the oral assessment of understanding of the topics of the course, students will be able to carry out some exercises (strongly recommended but not mandatory). The class exercise, in the form of a presentation and critical discussion, will contribute, for those who have carried it out, half of the vote for the final exam.
Students who have duly filed a
certification of DSA, disability or other educational needs
special requests to contact both the contact person Prof. Aristide Canepa
(aristide.canepa@unige.it) is the teacher at the beginning of the course, for
agree on teaching and examination methods which, in compliance with the
teaching objectives, take into account the methods of
individual learning and provide suitable compensatory tools.
