Philosophy

"The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic and method of the social sciences, such as sociology, anthropology, and political science. Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities between the social and the natural sciences, causal relationships between social phenomena, the possible existence of social laws, and the ontological significance of structure and agency."1

This general philosophy stated, at the center of this project's concern is the Faustian Bargain that is the framework of the emergence of a surveillance society - that allows now going beyond surveillance and intervening into the lives of the surveyed subjects. Increasingly, the concept of danger coming from state control is replaced by fear of corporate control over our lives. As those lives have increasingly moved to a virtual space, and as this space is becoming the new reality, moving from TV as passive medium to interactive forms of communication and reality perception that are internet based, A ) Information Technology and implied moral values: Internet Research Ethics; B) Social Networking Ethics: implied ideological and technological foundations of the current internet, or future forms of the internet, linked to C) Internet Research Ethics.

This interpretative concept needs to be linked to ethical concerns that build on the assumption that the mere quantity and velocity of data collection and potential use magnifies the impact, and therefore the responsibility of the interpreter of the data. The framework of such value-questions cannot be provided legally, as it relies on the integrity of the researcher - legal rules cannot restore privacy once violated, and no retributive or utilitarian conventional system of ethics allows foreseeing the consequences of Big Data Analysis. It is in the very nature of Big Data that no such foreseeability is possible; Big Data allows new questions with unforeseen answers to arise.

1Philosophy of Social Science. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_social_science

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