[SydPhil] University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series, Sean Donahue, (ANU)

[Ryan Cox]

Hi everyone,

Please note that there are two seminars in the University of Philosophy Seminar Series this week, one on Wednesday Oct 23 and another one on Friday Oct 25.

The speaker for Wednesday’s seminar is Sean Donahue, (ANU)

The title of the talk is "Platform Tyranny, Rule of Law, and Virtual Community". Here is an abstract for the talk:

Political philosophers have long been concerned with how to avoid state tyranny, the condition of governments having arbitrary power over citizens. A standard response is that avoiding tyranny requires making power holders conform to rule of law principles, for instance by considering their power legitimate only when used according to rules that are public, fairly enforced, and meaningfully contestable. Political scientists, economists, and journalists meanwhile often claim online platforms are sites of tyranny because of the arbitrary power platform owners have over platform users. This raises the question: When are state and platform tyranny sufficiently similar that platforms must conform to rule of law principles to govern users legitimately? I argue the analogy can hold for virtual communities. Given the role some virtual communities play in meeting their members’ vital interests, platforms must govern these communities according to rule of law principles to be legitimate.

The seminar will take place at 3:30pm on Wednesday Oct 23 in the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494).

The speaker for Friday’s seminar is James Norton, presenting joint work (James Norton, Finnur Dellsén, Tina Firing, (University of Tasmania, University of Iceland). Details for Friday’s seminar will be sent out later this week.

Enquiries about the seminar series can be directed to ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au

Ryan Cox
Associate Lecturer in Philosophy
Discipline of Philosophy
School of Humanities
University of Sydney
ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au
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