Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy
Abstract
So far no thinker has seemed to define the idea called "freedom of communication” being a syndrome of contemporary times and the future society of computer science in which information tends to be the most important “matter”. No one has defined either what freedom of communication is to become or what it consists in. What are its conditions and restrictions, not mentioning its essence? The paper tries to outline the contemporary comprehension of freedom including justice and equal rights, as well as their ethic relations to communication. Freedom, justice and equal rights are currently very distinct and intensive on the Internet which is becoming more and more popular. The Internet is a comparatively new means of social communication and extremely different from others known so far. Its technological possibilities give everyone a chance of sending information to people all over the world making it generally available. However, these new possibilities bring into existence moral dilemmas not occuring before. Lots of them have already appeared with great sharpness. We should expect further problems to emerge the more so as the access to the Internet is being widespread and technological restrictions concerning the capacity of the network system seem to be gradually removed. As it results from the undertaken considerations, the problems of freedom, justice and equal rights on the Internet are very significant and current. The relations and mutual dependences occurring among the three ideas and appearing during analyses seem to be very interesting. Freedom and equal rights are supposed to be dependent on justice which, in turn, is subject to law and truth. Hence, the conclusion is that ethical reflection is of minor significance while searching for solving ethical dilemmas regarding the Internet. These problems must be regulated according to the law. It is also worth noticing that there exists an urgent need of further studies on the problem of communication ethic, particularly in the new future society of computer science
