The Floridian Notion of the Information Object

Abstract

In this essay I consider Luciano Floridi’s use of Object Oriented (OO) terminology and theory in explaining his concept of the information object. I argue for several reasons that even if we admit Floridian information objects into our ontology they cannot be much like OO objects. OO objects, I argue, are referents and as such have explicit identity relations across various levels of abstraction from conceptual design through to implementation on computer hard drives or the like. Further, OO objects are clearly artifactual or human-made entities, always instantiated explicitly via the methods associated with their corresponding and defining object classes. Information objects on the other hand, if we are to consider them ontologically primitive, cannot be referents and certainly cannot be artifacts.