This is the blog of the AHRC-funded project "The Construction of Personal Identities Online". Welcome!
The project began in September, when this blog was created. Since then, we've been writing some papers, organising some conferences and workshops, and planning journal special issues. Though, as you can see, we haven't been doing much in the way of blogging. But that is changing, as of now! Via this space, you'll be able to keep track of what we're up to - the topics we're thinking about, the events we're organising, and the various tidbits of Online-Personal-Identity-Relevant information we come across, and think worthy of sharing.
But first, a little bit about what the project is all about. In broad terms, it's about whether or not various branches of philosophy can inform our ways of thinking about our interactions with information and with others in online environments, and conversely, whether philosophy can learn anything from thinking about such online cases. For example, might traditional philosophical disputes about personal identity, or about where to draw the boundaries between ourself and the world, or about the sorts of activities which might be essential to us as persons, benefit from considering the various ways in which people create personas, interact with others, and manipulate environments and information online? And might our ways of thinking about these online environments, of the nature of our interactions with and within them, and of their relevance to us and our lives, be usefully informed by existing philosophical work on persons, their minds, and their interactions?
We hope to answer 'yes' to both of these questions. Part of the task of philosophy is to describe the way we are in the world, and how best to think about it - to provide a useful map of the features of our world and our interactions with it that are of most importance to us as people. And, for many of us, online resources and environments are a key part of our world, allowing for projects, relationships and possibilities that would be unavailable to us otherwise. For many of us, the interactions we take part in via online interfaces are just as immediate, effortless and important to us as many of our interactions with our non-virtual environment. It's clear that the rapid development of these interactive possibilities in the last twenty or so years has changed the way many of us live. But are these changes that philosophers should be paying attention to?
Whether we answer that last question 'yes' or 'no', I think that in answering it we can't fail to learn something important both about philosophy, and about the technology we're considering. Showing that the moves we make online, or through some digital interface, are somehow of secondary importance to our lives would require us to have a convincing theory of the features of a person and their interactions which determine whether some aspect of them or their conduct is of 'primary' or 'secondary' importance. Conversely, showing that such moves could make some fundamental difference to us that should interest philosophers requires us to have a convinving view of the nature of those moves, and of the ways in which interactions with an environment can contribute to an agent's personhood.
Clearly, this is broad-brush stuff. But I hope it's enough to suggest why we think that the topic of this project might be of relevance to various branches of philosophy, and also of general interest. We hope that keeping you updated about our thoughts and activities on the project will make this an interesting blog. Please comment away with your thoughts, and let us know about any news, resources or ideas you think we should be interested in.
More soon!
The project began in September, when this blog was created. Since then, we've been writing some papers, organising some conferences and workshops, and planning journal special issues. Though, as you can see, we haven't been doing much in the way of blogging. But that is changing, as of now! Via this space, you'll be able to keep track of what we're up to - the topics we're thinking about, the events we're organising, and the various tidbits of Online-Personal-Identity-Relevant information we come across, and think worthy of sharing.
But first, a little bit about what the project is all about. In broad terms, it's about whether or not various branches of philosophy can inform our ways of thinking about our interactions with information and with others in online environments, and conversely, whether philosophy can learn anything from thinking about such online cases. For example, might traditional philosophical disputes about personal identity, or about where to draw the boundaries between ourself and the world, or about the sorts of activities which might be essential to us as persons, benefit from considering the various ways in which people create personas, interact with others, and manipulate environments and information online? And might our ways of thinking about these online environments, of the nature of our interactions with and within them, and of their relevance to us and our lives, be usefully informed by existing philosophical work on persons, their minds, and their interactions?
We hope to answer 'yes' to both of these questions. Part of the task of philosophy is to describe the way we are in the world, and how best to think about it - to provide a useful map of the features of our world and our interactions with it that are of most importance to us as people. And, for many of us, online resources and environments are a key part of our world, allowing for projects, relationships and possibilities that would be unavailable to us otherwise. For many of us, the interactions we take part in via online interfaces are just as immediate, effortless and important to us as many of our interactions with our non-virtual environment. It's clear that the rapid development of these interactive possibilities in the last twenty or so years has changed the way many of us live. But are these changes that philosophers should be paying attention to?
Whether we answer that last question 'yes' or 'no', I think that in answering it we can't fail to learn something important both about philosophy, and about the technology we're considering. Showing that the moves we make online, or through some digital interface, are somehow of secondary importance to our lives would require us to have a convincing theory of the features of a person and their interactions which determine whether some aspect of them or their conduct is of 'primary' or 'secondary' importance. Conversely, showing that such moves could make some fundamental difference to us that should interest philosophers requires us to have a convinving view of the nature of those moves, and of the ways in which interactions with an environment can contribute to an agent's personhood.
Clearly, this is broad-brush stuff. But I hope it's enough to suggest why we think that the topic of this project might be of relevance to various branches of philosophy, and also of general interest. We hope that keeping you updated about our thoughts and activities on the project will make this an interesting blog. Please comment away with your thoughts, and let us know about any news, resources or ideas you think we should be interested in.
More soon!
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