The SCOPUS ranking of the world's most influential philosophers compiled by DailyNousEditor is back again this year. Italian Luciano Floridi ranks first among the most mentioned and quoted philosophers globally. This was announced by the Oxford Internet Institution, where Floridi teaches philosophy and information ethics. He is followed in second place by Martha Nussbaum, a famous American philosopher and important scholar of Greek and Roman philosophy.
Known worldwide for his philosophical research work on information and information ethics, Luciano Floridi was educated at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". He obtained a PhD at the University of Warwick and then at the University of Oxford. Before assuming the chair of full professor at Oxford, he taught logic and epistemology, as associate professor, at the University of Oxford and at the University of Bari.
As full professor, however, he taught philosophy of information at the University of Hertfordshire, where he was also UNESCO Chair of Information and Computer Ethics. With his research, Floridi contributed to found two new fields of study: philosophy of information and computer ethics. For example, the Italian philosopher is credited with the invention of the concept of "onlife", i.e. a new form of social existence in which the barriers between real and virtual are fluid and questionable. Other key concepts of the philosophy of Luciano Floridi are "infosphere", which means the informational space in all fields, and "hyperhistory", in reference to the expansion of history due to the intricate network of information and data available.
Among his most important works is "La quarta ricoluzione" (The Fourth Revolution). Here Floridi highlights the progressive overlap between online and offline life, able to connect one with the other without any solution of continuity. This epochal passage represents nothing less than a fourth revolution, after those of Copernicus, Darwin and Freud. Another fundamental work is "Intelligenza artificiale" (Artificial Intelligence), a deep reflection on the role of artificial intelligence in the fate of society. "Will it contribute to the construction of a new humanity or to an ecosystem in which man will be on the margins?" asks Floridi in the essay. Finally, "Il verde e il blu" (The Green and the Blue) in which the philosopher offers a series of ideas for improving policy, starting with the importance of marrying green policies, digital and information economy.
