Historicizing Floridi

1 Anthony F. Beavers " A philosophy that is not timely but timeless is not a philosophia perennis, which unreasonably claims unbounded validity over past and future intellectual positions, but a stagnant philosophy, unable to contribute, keep track of, and interact with, the cultural evolution that philosophical reflection itself has helped to bring about, and hence to flourish. " There once was a philosopher not to be named 2 , who betrayed his teacher and in so doing made a mess of " the profession. " This master remarked that no great philosopher was wrong, but that each reported on how we stood in relation to being during his historical epoch. While naming him may lead to immediate dismissal , he nonetheless stirred the pot and in so doing tried to revitalize a profession that was languishing in his midst. This man was no relativist, but one who sought only to make philosophy relevant again. For what could make the history of philosophy more relevant than to read it as a record of human transformation rather than a competition to find the one truth that could stand still for all time? That man was part poet, part philosopher, part provocateur; and with that insight, he managed to uncover more than most previous philosophers covered over in a lifetime. Those who know him already know of whom I speak; those who don't will already be harboring suspicions. What does this Kierkegaardian invocation have to do with Luciano Floridi's The Philosophy of Information? To start, it suggests three things of importance about philosophy, namely, that any philosophy of import—and let us not forget that those with no import are also not remembered—1) is embodied in the ethos of a time and 2) set to answer questions that are pressing for its day. Consequent-2 I am here heeding the advice of John Haugeland, who once told me privately to refer to this man only as " the master " .