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The Online Self

Externalism, Friendship and Games

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Soraj Hongladarom

    1. Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

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  • Analyzes the concepts of self and identity as they appear in the online world
  • Offers insight into online games and online friendship from a philosophical perspective
  • Provides a connection between social media and computers games from the perspective of self and identity

Part of the book series: Philosophy of Engineering and Technology (POET, volume 25)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Soraj Hongladarom
    Pages 1-16

  3. The Self Through History

    • Soraj Hongladarom
    Pages 17-49

  4. The Extended Self View

    • Soraj Hongladarom
    Pages 51-82

  5. The Online Self and Philosophy of Technology

    • Soraj Hongladarom
    Pages 83-116

  6. Selves, Friends and Identities in Social Media

    • Soraj Hongladarom
    Pages 117-145

  7. Computer Games, Philosophy and the Online Self

    • Soraj Hongladarom
    Pages 147-164

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 165-171
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Keywords

About this book

This book investigates the emerging phenomenon of the self as it exists in the online world. It argues for an externalist conception of self and identity, one that does not depend on the continuity of consciousness of the subject. It also offers an analysis of related phenomenon such as online friendship and games based on this analysis. An outstanding feature of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is that it allows for the user to put forward their “selves” or their identity onto the Internet and use the online self as an anchor to connect with any number of “friends” each of whom also has their own online selves. A number of questions then arise which are deeply conceptual and philosophical in nature: What is the metaphysical nature of this emerging online self? Is it the same or fundamentally different from the “offline” self with which we are already familiar? Since increasing numbers of  people are connected to the online world, this world itself seems to be taking on a reality of its own. This much has been appreciated by a number of scholars in the field. However, there seems to be lacking a systematic study of the philosophical and metaphysical nature of the self that has become a key element in cyberspace, a key topic which this volume addresses. Apart from the problem of constitution of the online self, this volume addresses related questions concerning personal identity in the online world and scrutinizes computer games and the characteristics that they share with social networking sites. Unlike the majority of the existing literature, which discusses the topic from a more social scientific perspective, this volume fills the lacuna of a philosophical and theoretical study of the online world.​  

Authors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Soraj Hongladarom

About the author

Soraj Hongladarom is an associate professor of philosophy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. He has published books and articles on such diverse issues as bioethics, computer ethics and the roles that science and technology play in the culture of developing countries. His concern is mainly on how science and technology can be integrated into the life-world of the people in the so-called Third World countries and what kind of ethical considerations can be obtained from such relation. A large part of this question concerns how information technology is integrated in the lifeworld of the Thai people and especially how such integration is expressed in the use of information technology in education. He has organized the second and third Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy conferences at Chulalongkorn University in 2005 and 2007. His works have appeared in The Information Society, AI & Society, Philosophy in the Contemporary World and Social Epistemology, among others.

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