Introduction
Rafael Capurro (born 20 November 1945) is a Uruguayan philosopher and academic specialist in the field of information ethics. He was Professor of information management and information ethics at Stuttgart Media University in Germany from 1986 to 2009, when he entered emeritus status. Since then he has been Director of the Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin Institute of Information Ethics (2008-2013), and Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Digital Ethics at Stuttgart Media University.
Capurro is the founder or co-founder of several organizations including the Capurro Fiek Foundation, the International Center for Information Ethics, Red Latinoamericana de ética de la information, the Africa Network for Information Ethics and the International Society for Information Studies.
Early life
Capurro was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1945 to father, Mario Capurro Etchegaray (1917-2006) and mother Raquel Fonseca Piaggio (1921-1946), both of Italian ancestry. The Capurro family heritage can be traced to Giovanni Battista Capurro (1798-1872) who founded the Capurro family in Uruguay. Rafael's father, Mario, was a farmer in Uruguay, and married Raquel Fonseca with whom he had two children, Raquel Capurro and Rafael. Raquel Fonseca died shortly after Rafael's birth and his father married Raquel's sister, Matilde with whom he had seven children.