Abstract
The paper provides an axiological analysis of the concepts of respect for
information and of information dignity from the vantage point provided by
Information Ethics and the conceptual paradigm of object-oriented analysis
(OOA). The general perspective adopted is that of an ontocentric approach to the
philosophy of information ethics, according to which the latter is an expansion of
environmental ethics towards a less biologically biased concept of a ‘centre of
ethical worth’. The paper attempts to answer the following question: what is the
lowest possible common set of attributes which characterises something as
intrinsically valuable and an object of respect, and without which something would
rightly be considered intrinsically worthless or even positively unworthy and
therefore rightly disrespectable in itself? The thesis developed and defended in the
paper is that the minimal condition of possibility of an object’s least intrinsic
worthiness can be identified with its abstract nature as an information entity. Thus,
all entities, interpreted as clusters of information, have a minimal moral worth qua
information objects (i.e. qua information), that deserves to be respected. The
principles elaborated in the course of the analysis are those of ‘reflective respect’
(A’s respect towards all members of A’s class motivated by A’s respect towards A
not qua individual, but qua instantiation of a class of entities), ‘ontic uniformity’
(A’s recognition of A’s membership to the class of information entities) and ‘ontic
solidarity’ (A’s recognition of any information entity’s dignity).