Plato and the Internet by Kieron O'hara

Plato and the Internet by Kieron O'hara

We live in a knowledge economy. Competition now straddles the world, and competitive advantage will be produced from now on by knowledge and creativity. Acquiring and managing knowledge better has become a political imperative. And yet - what is knowledge? The arguments have changed little since Plato. Arguing against sceptics who claim we have no knowledge at all, philosophers have focused on knowledge of facts, on how to distinguish true knowledge from mere belief. But the knowledge economy is less interested in knowledge about facts as in know-how - the Internet provides anyone with a PC and a phone line with access to billions of documents. We are drowning in information, while being starved of knowledge. What we really want is to get clever things done, in smarter ways. Plato and the Internet argues that what is important is not 'what facts you know', but 'what you know how to do', and that the essential contrast is not between knowledge and belief, but between knowledge and information. Is the Internet really something new - or a continuation of the past by other means?

'Advances in knowledge are the driving force behind the industries of the future' Tony Blair, November 1998

Kieron O'Hara is currently research fellow in the Intelligence, Agents and Multimedia Group at the University of Southampton. He co-wrote the script of the computer game Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation, and is also the author of the only (as far as he knows) scholarly paper about Carry On Cabby.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781840463460
ISBN 10	1840463465
Title	Plato and the Internet
Author	Kieron O'hara
Series	Postmodern Encounters
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Icon Books
Year published	2002-02-04
Number of pages	80
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.