The Philosophy of Online Manipulation

Fleur Jongepier is Assistant Professor in digital ethics at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. She is currently working on a research project on the impact of algorithms on our capacity for self-knowledge and autonomy, and the ways in which algorithms are said to know us ‘better than we know ourselves’. She is also interested in feminist ethics, self and identity, moral pedagogy, and is actively engaged in public philosophy. Michael Klenk is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. His work is at the intersection of metaethics, moral psychology, and the philosophy of technology. He is the editor of Higher-Order Evidence and Moral Epistemology (Routledge, 2020) and co-editor of Philosophy in the Age of Science? Inquiries into Philosophical Progress, Method, and Societal Relevance (2020).

Introduction and Overview of Chapters, Fleur Jongepier & Michael Klenk


Part I Conceptual and methodological questions




Online Manipulation: Charting the Field, Fleur Jongepier & Michael Klenk



Online Manipulation and Agential Risk, Max Cappuccio, Constantine Sandis, & Austin Wyatt



How philosophy might contribute to the practical ethics of online manipulation, Anne Barnhill



Manipulative Machines, Jessica Pepp, Rachel Sterken, Matthew McKeever, & Eliot Michaelson



Manipulation, Injustice, and Technology, Michael Klenk
Part II Threats to autonomy, freedom, and meaning in life




Commercial Online Choice Architecture: When Roads Are Paved With Bad Intentions, Bart Engelen & Thomas Nys



Microtargeting people as a mere means, Fleur Jongepier & Jan-Willem Wieland



Manipulation as Digital Invasion: A neo-republican approach, Marianna Capasso



Gamification, Manipulation, and Domination, Moti Gorin



Manipulative Design Through Gamification, W. Jared Parmer



Technological manipulation and threats to Meaning in Life, Sven Nyholm



Digital Manipulation and Mental Integrity, Geoff Keeling & Christopher Burr
Part III Epistemic, affective, and political harms and risks




Is There A Duty To Disclose Epistemic Risk?, Hanna Gunn



Promoting Vices: Designing the Web for Manipulation, Lukas Schwenger



Online Affective Manipulation, Nathan Wildman, Natascha Rietdijk, & Alfred Archer



Manipulation and the Affective Realm of Social Media, Alexander Fischer



Social Media, Emergent Manipulation, and Political Legitimacy, Adam Pham, Alan Rubel, & Clinton Castro
Part IV Legal and regulatory perspectives




Regulating Online Defaults, Kalle Grill



Manipulation, real-time profiling, and their wrongs, Lucas Miotto & Jiahong Chen