Epistemic Values and Information Management

The philosophy of information is concerned with the nature, management, and use of information. Thus, it should be able to help us make better decisions about how to manage information (e.g., decisions about intellectual property laws, collection development policies, and Internet evaluation techniques). These decisions have knowledge acquisition as one of their principal goals. Thus, one way to improve these decisions is to clarify our epistemic values. In this article, we combine epistemology and decision analysis in an attempt to assist people in this important task.