Cyber-Green: idealism in the information age
Date | 11 May 2015 |
Pages | 146-164 |
Published date | 11 May 2015 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-10-2014-0049 |
Author | Alistair S. Duff |
Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Cyber-Green: idealism in the
information age
Alistair S. Duff
School of Arts and Creative Industries, Edinburgh Napier University,
Edinburgh, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to retrieve relevant aspects of the work of idealist thinker T.H. Green to
improve comprehension of, and policy responses to, various dilemmas facing contemporary
“information societies”.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an exercise in interdisciplinary conceptual research,
seeking a new synthesis that draws upon a range of ethical, metaphysical, empirical and policy texts
and ideas. It is an application of moral and political principles to post-industrial problems, part of an
ongoing international effort to develop viable normative approaches to the emergent information
society. The background research included in situ study of archival papers.
Findings – Green’s version of idealism illuminates current, technologically induced shifts in our
understandings of important categories such as self, substance and space. The paper nds that Green’s
doctrine of the common good, his alternative to the (still prevalent) school of utilitarian welfarism,
combined with his famously “positive” theory of the state, is highly relevant as a normative template for
applied philosophy and policy. The article demonstrates its applicability to three vital contemporary
issues: freedom of information, intellectual property and personal privacy. It concludes that Green’s
work provides exceptional resources for an original, anti-technocratic, theory of the information society
as good society.
Practical implications – It is hoped that, as part of the wider rediscovery of the work of Green and
other idealists, the paper will have some impact on public policy.
Originality/value – The paper contains a new scholarly interpretation of Green’s theories of the
common good and of the state. In addition, it is believed to be the rst major attempt to apply idealism
to the information society and its problems.
Keywords Information society, Cyberethics, Normative frameworks, Information ethics,
Information access, Information policy
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Thomas Hill Green (1836-1882) was a signicant public intellectual of the industrial era,
a theoretician as inuential in the late nineteenth century as John Rawls or R. H. Tawney
in the twentieth. One of the rst professional philosophers in England, he was also an
Oxford city councillor and an activist for domestic and foreign causes; overcoming his
natural reserve, “he spoke clearly and denitely on the most important political issues of
his day” (Ulam, 1951, p. 18). A turnout of some two thousand at his funeral was
indicative of the esteem in which he was held (Richter, 1964, p. 372). However, Green’s
work fell into disrepute in the twentieth century, his arguments judged to have failed the
This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/
K002899/1]. The author is also grateful to Balliol College, Oxford, for access to the Green Papers.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
JICES
13,2
146
Received 13 October 2014
Revised 10 December 2014
Accepted 10 January 2015
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.13 No. 2, 2015
pp.146-164
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-10-2014-0049
rigorous examination of analytical philosophy. For example, W. D. Ross (1930,p.51)
believed that there was “patent error” in Green’s work, Berlin (1969, p. 133) “confusion”,
while Stuart Hampshire’s verdict (quoted in Tyler, 2010, p. 16) was that he “left no legacy
of convincing argument or insight”. I wish to argue, very much to the contrary, and
alongside a small but growing number of what for want of a better term might be called
Green revivalists (Boucher and Vincent, 2000;Carter, 2003;Leighton, 2004) that not only
was his work of intrinsic merit, but that Green can speak powerfully to the issues of our
own day.
More particularly, I want to show that Green can assist with some acute
ethico-political problems confronting the post-industrial world, issues associated with
the coming of the so-called information society, such as information rights, intellectual
property and privacy. He can do so because his philosophical writings provide durable
theoretical foundations for a contemporary normative project, a repository of arguments
and insights conducive to an ideal of the information society as the good society. This
article thus represents somewhat of a new departure. The Green revivalists have not
addressed information society issues, focusing instead on standard philosophical
concerns, such as the libertarianism/communitarianism debate, and have done so from
comfortably inside the industrial paradigm. On the other hand, scholars from
alternative disciplines or of interdisciplinary orientation who have sought to revisit
classical thinkers for their applicability to post-industrialism, have overlooked Green,
invoking instead more predictable authorities, like Karl Marx and Jeremy Bentham
(Dyer-Witheford, 1999;Lyon, 2001). My hypothesis is that an exploration of the
conceptual space between these two stools will be richly rewarded with guidance on the
perplexities surrounding the socio-technical system of the “cyber” century.
2. Idealism and the question concerning metaphysics
No one doubts that Green was the father gure in what became known as British
Idealism, the school of nineteenth-century thought that imported the contributions of
continental philosophers, such as Kant and, particularly, Hegel, as part of an attempt to
advance beyond the dominant domestic tradition of Lockean empiricism. He
distinguished himself not only as an innovator but also as the “complete” philosopher,
producing an entire system of ideas that encompassed logic, metaphysics and ethics – in
the useful Stoic analogy, the egg’s shell, yoke and white. My focus in this article will be
on the white, the moral philosophy and the political philosophy derived from it, but the
yoke is also signicant, both in its own right and also through the distinctive way that
Green made it the basis of his prescriptions. It is logical to begin any exposition with
metaphysics, which I take to be the study of the nature of ultimate reality and of how
that reality can be known. While the following account can only be rudimentary, it will
hopefully be sufcient at least to suggest the desirability of helping to rouse a
long-dormant tradition. There is much in Green’s metaphysical platform that not only
resonates with postmodern sensibilities but also bolsters current initiatives to refashion
the world as a networked information society – or so it will be argued.
To know is to relate. That might sound uncontroversial, but for Green, as for many
other idealists, coherent knowledge of the world entailed the existence not only of
self-conscious, knowing subjects but also of an overarching supreme intelligence,
namely, God or, in Hegelian nomenclature, the Absolute. The basic steps in the
characteristic idealist deduction can be summarised as follows. Suppose, as per
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Cyber-Green
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