Abstract

Digital networks are constantly bringing about social change and are transforming the way we live and work. Philosophy as a part of the humanities has delivered important contributions to the theoretical analysis of social phenomena. Conceptualizing Web philosophy as a freshly configured set of methods brings this important cultural perspective back into the centre of research agendas. This paper sets out to present the building blocks of Web philosophy and to set out the area of a possible newly emerging philosophical discipline. Web philosophy can still be seen as a part of practical philosophy, which deals with real-world problems and can be translated back into real-world solutions. It emphasises the context of application and tries to integrate different existing research methodologies to a new disciplinary framework. Furthermore, Web philosophy generates research questions and opens up links to further research in empirically and also technically oriented disciplines. Therefore, Web philosophy is intrinsically interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary oriented and sees itself connected to applied research. We see Web philosophy as a seminal way for research in the humanities to reconnect to the mainstream of interdisciplinary research in the digital society.