Do Knowledge and New Technologies Need a NewEpistemology?

Abstract

We suggest a historical and epistemological treatment of the theme of access to information and its means: the changes in the means of access and the value given to knowledge in Western history from Plato to nowadays. The uses and access, as we will see, are conditioned both by ideology and technique, which are themselves in an iterative relationship. Which ideology today is our individual and collective connection to the world, to others, and to ourselves, what are the problematics, the stakes? The question of the access to information concerns the students in the science of information, as future professionals in charge of gathering, handling, and spreading information, that is, to be more precise, having and giving access to it. But, on top of receiving technical training, the student also takes the responsibility of thinking about his or her own subject. Numerical development and network information change the whole society drastically, as well as individual or sociological practice, and appears as one of the main ethical stake for the world. In the first part of our paper, we will examine the access to knowledge as well as the value assigned to this knowledge. In a second part we will see that it is generally admitted that in the information society individuals have the right of access to information. The exercise of this right enables citizens to keep their governments and public bodies accountable. Access to information is essential for citizen empowerment.