Philosophy of Big Data: Expanding the Human-Data Relation with Big Data Science Services

Big data is growing as an area of information technology, service, and science, and so too is the need for its intellectual understanding and interpretation from a theoretical, philosophical, and societal perspective. The Philosophy of Big Data is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of big data, the definitions, meaning, conceptualization, knowledge possibilities, truth standards, and practices in situations involving very-large data sets that are big in volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and variability. The Philosophy of Big Data is evolving into a discipline at two levels, one internal to the field as a generalized articulation of the concepts, theory, and systems that comprise the overall conduct of big data science. The other is external to the field, as a consideration of the impact of big data science more broadly on individuals, society, and the world. Methods, tools, and concepts are evaluated at both the level of industry practice theory and social impact. Three aspects are considered: what might constitute a Philosophy of Big Data, how the disciplines of the Philosophy of Information and the Philosophy of Big Data are developing, and an example of the Philosophy of Big Data in application in the data-intensive science field of Synthetic Biology. Overall a Philosophy of Big Data might helpful in conceptualizing and realizing big data science as a service practice, and also in transitioning to data-rich futures with human and data entities more productively co-existing in mutual growth and collaboration.