Multiple Truths of the Semantic Web

Abstract

Building off our previous work to re-conceptualize Web technologies through social theory, the following contribution presents a close reading of Foucault’s discussion of “truth” as it relates to the Semantic Web. Specifically, we offer a position which looks at the discourse of science as applied onto the Semantic Web - and in a larger sense the entire Web - challenging the notion of scientific truth. We begin with Foucault’s theorization of truth, then move into why we believe it can be applied to the Semantic Web. This piece concludes with a discussion of how such technologies complicate social theory and scientific inquiry.