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W. Hofkirchner:
"Idiotism and the Logic of the Third";
Talk: State-of-Peace Conference, Peace Castle, Schlaining (invited); 2013-10-01 - 2013-10-04; in: "Stae of Peace Conference 2013", M. Lakitsch (ed.); (2014), ISBN: 978-3-643-90493-5; 55 - 76.

Within the perspective of a Global Sustainable Information Society to come (Hofkirchner), it is argued that information society governance, including, but not being exhausted by, internet governance, needs to (1) be global, that is, transcend nation-state level measures; (2) provide sustainability in a very broad sense (culturally, politically, economically, ecologically, and technologically) such that the actors of world society are free to fight anthropogenic dangers of breakdown; (3) assure the availability of information required for that purpose through ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) properly shaped.

Obstacles to the implementation of governance in the above sense are interests that antagonise the interest in "information to be free": it is self-interest that harnesses information for the purpose of advantaging the self as against the other and as against the social system the self is element of or is on the point of becoming an element of.

Self-interestedness is idiotism (Neal Curtis) - conditions of restriction to the private as against the public. However, information is a public good; it is a commons as is any good produced by actors in common and for common use. Thus the commons follow the logic of the "third". The "third" is a something that relates the actors ego and alter ("first" and "second"); it is an emergent that comes into being through the interaction of ego and alter or is reproduced by that interaction; it enables and constrains the further interaction of ego and alter.

Moreover, the enclosure of commons is an antagonistic action that violates the logic of the "third". Antagonisms arise from the (private) enclosure of any commons (Slavoj Zizek). Hence the possibility of collective action comprising different social movements. The transformation of antagonisms into agonisms (Chantal Mouffe) might be interpreted as a transformation from idiotism to the logic of the "third"; from a state of actors being exclusively self-interested to a state of them being open to take into account a "third" the relation of which to each of them can be reflected by ego and alter so as to make them change their actions; from the level of dyads as conflicting monads to the metalevel enabling the triad ego-"third"-alter.

Antagonisms bear the stamp of intransigence and thus the seed of violence. They need to be transformed in order to halt violence. States, corporations as well as civil society factions seem to increasingly carry out actions that follow the rule "illegal, but legitimate" (Norman Paech). The fact is these actions aren´t legitimate either. It is stated that legitimation can only be accomplished if the actors abide by the logic of the "third".

Within the perspective of a Global Sustainable Information Society to come (Hofkirchner), it is argued that information society governance, including, but not being exhausted by, internet governance, needs to (1) be global, that is, transcend nation-state level measures; (2) provide sustainability in a very broad sense (culturally, politically, economically, ecologically, and technologically) such that the actors of world society are free to fight anthropogenic dangers of breakdown; (3) assure the availability of information required for that purpose through ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) properly shaped.

Obstacles to the implementation of governance in the above sense are interests that antagonise the interest in "information to be free": it is self-interest that harnesses information for the purpose of advantaging the self as against the other and as against the social system the self is element of or is on the point of becoming an element of.

Self-interestedness is idiotism (Neal Curtis) - conditions of restriction to the private as against the public. However, information is a public good; it is a commons as is any good produced by actors in common and for common use. Thus the commons follow the logic of the "third". The "third" is a something that relates the actors ego and alter ("first" and "second"); it is an emergent that comes into being through the interaction of ego and alter or is reproduced by that interaction; it enables and constrains the further interaction of ego and alter.

Moreover, the enclosure of commons is an antagonistic action that violates the logic of the "third". Antagonisms arise from the (private) enclosure of any commons (Slavoj Zizek). Hence the possibility of collective action comprising different social movements. The transformation of antagonisms into agonisms (Chantal Mouffe) might be interpreted as a transformation from idiotism to the logic of the "third"; from a state of actors being exclusively self-interested to a state of them being open to take into account a "third" the relation of which to each of them can be reflected by ego and alter so as to make them change their actions; from the level of dyads as conflicting monads to the metalevel enabling the triad ego-"third"-alter.

Antagonisms bear the stamp of intransigence and thus the seed of violence. They need to be transformed in order to halt violence. States, corporations as well as civil society factions seem to increasingly carry out actions that follow the rule "illegal, but legitimate" (Norman Paech). The fact is these actions aren´t legitimate either. It is stated that legitimation can only be accomplished if the actors abide by the logic of the "third".