"Facebook and Philosophy," a collection of 23 essays on philosophic topics concerning the social media site, has been published by Open Court and edited by Dylan E. Wittkower, a philosophy lecturer at Coastal Carolina University.

The compilation was written by professors and academic experts from around the world who discuss the demographics of Facebook, privacy issues, virtual friendship, the value (or valuelessness) of status updates, Facebook as factory, issues of self-identity and more.

"This is what is so valuable about Facebook: the indeterminate meaning of so much of what it is and what it does," writes Wittkower. "This indeterminacy allows us users plenty of space to make things mean what we want them to. If there's anything humans are good at, it's creating meaning through social interaction."

Wittkower is also the editor of "iPod and Philosophy: Icon of an ePoch" (2008) and "Mr. Monk and Philosophy: The Curious Case of the Defective Detective" (2010), and author of book chapters and journal articles on topics ranging from the morality of copyright, to the experience of listening to audio books, to the predominance of cuteness in online culture.

He joined the Coastal Carolina University faculty in 2008. He earned a doctorate degree in philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006 and specializes in applied ethics, social and political philosophy and late modern philosophy. Wittkower previously taught at Sweet Briar College, Virginia Tech, University of Missouri-St. Louis and University of Maine-Orono.