Is it time for the Philosophy of ICT?

Abstract

Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the accompanying impacts on socio-economic development have led researchers to consider a new ‘philosophical phenomenon’ known as Philosophy of ICT. In this article we argue that ICT has unique knowledge, questions, methodologies, explanatory models and ethical problems that are not easily addressed by the existing philosophies related to Computer Science, and hence there is a need to study the philosophy of ICT as a subject. Furthermore, ICT is a relatively a new discipline compared to the older subjects such as Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics. The diversity and inter-disciplinary nature of ICT and the multiplicity of its uses in other sciences make it hard to define ICT and to prescribe how ICT research should be carried out. This article will attempt to address the need to study the philosophy of ICT as a subject, and discuss the main thematic areas that the study of ICT should entail.