Mark Alfino teaches for the Philosophy Department at Gonzaga University. His teaching and research interests are broad, but tend to focus on two general problems: the nature of language and the nature of values. He publishes on topics in ethics and, in recent years, has been working on the topics of Happiness and Wisdom. In the last few years, he has returned to Information Ethics with a new book of collected papers on Intellectual Freedom. He has also been working in the area of philosophy of culture and takes a group of students to Benin on a short term study abroad program.
Dr. Mark Alfino has been a member of the Philosophy Faculty at Gonzaga University since 1989.
"Can the Enlightenment bring Free Speech to Cosmopolis?" a review of Timothy Garton Ash's Free Speech, forthcoming in the Journal of Information Ethics.
"Deep Copy Culture," in The Aesthetics and Ethics of Copying, Bloomsbury Press, October 2016.
"The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life," Journal of Information Ethics, 23.2 (Fall 2014): 82-86.
Handbook of Intellectual Freedom: Theories, Concepts, and Cases, co-edited with Laura Koltutsky, (Litwin Press, Spring 2014). Winner of the 2014-2016 Obler Award from the American Library Association.
"Naturalizing Wisdom," Regarding the Mind Naturally, eds. Milkowski, Marcin and Konrad Talmont-Kaminski (Cambridge Scholars Press 2013).
"Book Notice: Swan, John and Peattie, Noel. The Freedom to Lie." in Journal of Information Ethics 22.2 (Fall 2013).
"Twenty Years of Information Ethics and the Journal of Information Ethics," Journal of Information Ethics 21.2 (Fall 2012): 13-17.
"Review of Oxford Handbook on the Philosophy of Death," Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, June 30, 2013 (online).
with Michele Pajer , Linda Pierce, and Kelly Jenks, “Integrating Information Literacy Skills into a linked Freshman “Thought and Expression” Learning Community” College and Undergraduate Libraries (2008).
"Privacy, Surveillance, and the Good Life," cover story, The Local Planet, Spokane, Washington, March 18, 2004
with Randy Mayes, "Reconstructing the Right to Privacy," Social Theory and Practice, v 29 no 1, January 2003.
with Randy Mayes, "Rationality_and_the_Right_to_Privacy." in Today's Moral Issues, ed. Daniel Bonevac, fourth edition, (2001). Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing. p. 307-312.
"Misplacing Privacy," Journal of Information Ethics (Fall 2001): 5-9
"The Social Nature of Information Ethics," with Linda Pierce, Library Trends v 49 no3 Winter 2001. p. 471-85.
"Will the Center Hold? Core Values in A Changing Information Environment," with Linda Pierce, PNLA Quarterly 63.1 Fall 1998, 16-17
McDonaldization Revisited: Critical Essays in Consumer Culture, co-edited with Robin Wynard and John Caputo, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
"Traditional vs. Information Management Theory," Journal of Information Ethics (Spring 1998): 5-9
Information Ethics for Librarians, co-authored with Linda Pierce, MacFarland and Associates, 1997.
"Postmodern Hamburgers: Taking a Postmodern Attitude Toward McDonald's," in Mark Alfino, Robin Wynyard, and John Caputo (Eds.), McDonaldization Revisited: Critical Essays in Consumer Culture, Greenwood Press, 1998, 175-189.
"Research Crimes, Misdemeanors, and Tolerated Deceptions," Journal of Information Ethics 5.1 (Spring 1996): 5-8.
"The Information Ethics of Polite Work Culture," Journal of Information Ethics 4.2 (Fall 1995): 9-12.
"Breaking Managerial Information Monopolies: Ethical Considerations in Setting Workplace Information Policy," Journal of Information Ethics 4.1 (Spring 1995): 5-10.
Rev., with Paul Alfino, M.D., of Ethical Issues in Dialysis and Transplantation, Carl Kjellstrand, M.D. and John B. Dossetor (Eds.), Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992, American Journal of Kidney Diseases 24.1 (July 1994): 155-156.
"Do Expert Systems Have a Moral Cost?" Journal of Information Ethics 2.2 (Fall 1993): 15-19. Reprinted in Richard Stichler and Robert Hauptman (Eds.), Ethics, Information and Technology: Readings, MacFarland and Associates, 1998, 95-100.
"The Virtue of the Information Manager," Journal of Information Ethics 2.1 (Spring 1993): 16-20. Reprinted in G. Lee Bowie, Kathleen M. Higgins, Meredith W. Michaels, Thirteen Questions in Ethics and Social Philosophy, 2nd Edition, Harcourt Brace Publishers, 1997.
"Information Rights vs. Information Virtues," Journal of Information Ethics 1.1 (Fall 1992): 13-17. Reprinted in G. Lee Bowie, Kathleen M. Higgins, Meredith W. Michaels, Thirteen Questions in Ethics and Social Philosophy, 2nd Edition, Harcourt Brace Publishers, 1997.
"Intellectual Property and Copyright Ethics," Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 10.2 (1991): 85-109. Reprinted in Robert A. Larmer (Ed.), Ethics in the Workplace, Minneapolis, MN: West Publishing Company, 1996, 278-293.
"Another Look at the Derrida-Searle Debate," Philosophy and Rhetoric 24.2 (1991): 143-152.
"Two Futures for Library Copyright Policy," ALKI 6.3 (1990): 77-79.
An Introduction to Ethics, course guide for a correspondence course in ethics, University of Texas Extension Office, Fall 1989.
"At the Margins of Representation in Postmodern Philosophy and Literature," Comparative Literature in Canada/ La Littérature Comparée au Canada: The Unmaking of Margins/ Defaire les Marges, 20 (1989).
"Plotinus and the Possibility of Non-Propositional Thought," Ancient Philosophy, 8 (1989): 273-284.
"How is the Philosophy of Language Possible?," review of How is Language Possible?, J. N. Hattiangadi, Texas Foreign Language Education Papers 2.1 (1988): 152-156.
