CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS OF SCIENCE: THE PHILOSOPHY OF DATA AND INFORMATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31392/cult.alm.2026.2.41Keywords:
philosophy of science, philosophy of information, philosophy of data, digital age, infosphere, data science, testimonial injustice, semiocapitalism, artificial intelligence, post-truthAbstract
This article provides a comprehensive philosophical analysis of contemporary concepts of the philosophy of data and the philosophy of information as new branches of the philosophy of science that emerged in the context of digitalization and the rise of data science. The article examines the conceptual foundations of Luciano Floridi's philosophy of information, grounding the fundamental hierarchy of data–information–knowledge, where semantic information is constituted as well-formed, meaningful, and truthful data, and the concept of the infosphere describes a qualitatively new ontological environment of human existence. The hermeneutic approach to information and digital ethics developed by Rafael Capurro is analyzed: digitalization transforms humanity's anthropological self-understanding, and the concept of networked individualities captures a new mode of human being-in-the-world, wherein the protection of personal data becomes the protection of autonomous existence. Rob Kitchin's concept of the data revolution is characterized, revealing the qualitative difference between big data and traditional datasets in terms of exhaustivity, velocity, variety, and relationality. The critical perspective of D. Boyd and K. Crawford is examined: they demonstrate that big data analysis reproduces existing social hierarchies and creates an illusion of objectivity. Miranda Fricker's concept of testimonial and hermeneutical injustice is applied to algorithmic systems: an algorithm trained on biased data systematically deflates the epistemic credibility of marginalized subjects – a structural, not merely technical, problem. Franco Berardi's philosophy of semiocapitalism is discussed, within which the delegation of cognitive functions to machines constitutes a symptom of anthropological shift and the exhaustion of subjectivity. The philosophical implications of delegating analytical functions to artificial intelligence systems are identified: algorithms as epistemic agents are not value-neutral, and their bias requires reflection at the level of the philosophy of cognition, not merely technical correction. It is argued that the philosophy of data and the philosophy of information are necessary theoretical frameworks for a critical understanding of the role of data in contemporary science, society, and the formation of new forms of subjectivity
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