Humanitarian Strategy Of Digitalization As An Answer To The Modern Socio-Economic Challenges

Abstract

Digitalization has brought a number of impressive innovations to the lives of the modern people, including scientific, technic, technological and industrial achievements. However digitalization isn’t only a technical phenomenon, but also an economic, political, and socio-cultural one. The paradox of the present times is that, despite the great scientific and technological progress, it hasn’t yet been the subject of special reflection. Forming strategic paradigm of social development in the digital age requires understanding its basic philosophical and methodological foundations. Humanities are the most effective instrument to analyze them fully and complexly. Humanities discuss the most actual questions of the human status in a changing world, of saving his real «human» face and essence, dangerous experiments on the biological side of human nature, the unity and interdependence of human life and the environment. Today all these problems have an unprecedented importance: they aren’t only the theoretical objects of Humanities, but the basic imperatives of human survival. Modern Humanities have to explain the deep meanings of everything what is happing around us; to identify the prerequisites and consequences of the most significant events and phenomena, to find out the very essence of human existence in a rapidly changing world. They must also protect the digital society from the pressure of absurdity and destructiveness. Thus, the role of Humanities in the modern digital society is significantly increasing.

Keywords: Digitalizationdigital societyhumanitiesphilosophyrelativism

Introduction

It’s well known that the importance of philosophy, as well as of all the social sciences and Humanities, always intensifies and increases at the critical and problematic historical moments. This is due to the unique character of Humanities to explain the deep meanings of everything that is happing, to identify the prerequisites and the basis for the most significant events and phenomena, to find out the very essence of human existence in the rapidly changing world (Makhovikov et al., 2021). Therefore, it’s quite obvious at the present stage of historical evolution that the digital era can’t do without philosophical and humanitarian components, despite repeated many times provocative comments on this subject. Digitalization has brought a number of impressive innovations to the lives of modern people, including scientific, technic, technological and industrial achievements. However, the digital society doesn’t need only them, but also a philosophic and, widely, humanitarian reflection of what’s happening in connection with all these new trends and tendencies. Without this, society rolls down to technocracy, falls through the Net (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1999), follows aggressive scientism and relativism, and forgets the worldview and humanistic foundations of its own existence.

Problem Statement

In modern conditions it’s very important to understand the need for the Humanities and then to form a humanitarian strategy of digitalization. It’ll be a correct answer to the actual socio-economic challenges. Humanities must take their rightful place in the digital society. They must be completely integrated into the education system, in the field of scientific researches and even in the lives of modern humans. It’s the Humanities that should help us to understand the prerequisites and essence of digitalization, to find the right way of development or to correct it. With a help of Humanities we can recognize and accept the global crisis that accompanies the triumph of technology and digitalization. We can also identify ourselves in the changing world; find out the humanistic meaning and the sense of our existence. These are the most important tasks of the modern Humanities. Shortly, they are an effective instrument to choose the right criteria of socio-cultural development in the world of technic and digital innovations.

Research Questions

The present research tries to give answers to a number of the related questions. They are the same:

1. What are the place and role of Humanities in the digital society?

2. What are the main problems of digitalization in the context of philosophical reflection?

3. What are the deviations of the modern science development?

4. What are the difficulties of the education system in the digital age?

5. Why naive relativism and knowledge pluralism are unproductive worldview tendencies?

6. Why the strategy of digitalization must be socio-humanitarian?

Thus, it’s necessary to consider the problems of digitalization from the philosophical point of view, to overcome deviations of scientific knowledge and education system development, to form the correct socio-humanitarian strategy of digitalization, giving it the human-oriented sense and content.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to find out the place and role of Humanities in the digital epoch. The authors reject a widespread opinion about an absence of demand for humanitarian knowledge in the modern society. The last one is allegedly aimed at forming of highly professional, but narrow profiled specialists. This makes human «one-dimensional» and leads to the relational world vision. The last one is dangerous because it deprives the human of the worldview certainty. The present study proves the hypothesis that Humanities are able to resist relativism in the digital era. Philosophy plays an important role in this process. Its aim is to generate new ideas, to realize critical reflection, and to give the common sense to everything what is happening.

Research Methods

Several methods are used together to realize the purpose of the study. They are the methods of analysis and synthesis, prognostic method, comparative and dialectical methods.

1. Methods of analysis and synthesis are used to make a full and complex vision of the digital society development. This allows interpreting «digitalization» not only as a technical phenomenon, but as an economic, political, and socio-cultural one.

2. Prognostic method is used to construct a correct, human-oriented strategic paradigm of the future social development, to find out its main principles, problems and perspectives.

3. Comparative method is used to describe specificity of Humanities and philosophy during the pre-digital and the digital epochs. An attitude towards them in the higher education system has also varied depending on the historical time and the special world vision.

4. Dialectical method is used to illustrate the changing character of the social values and to prove the increasing role of Humanities in the digital world.

Findings

Conclusion

Summing up the results of the research, we can note that we are living in a very interesting but also a very difficult time. It’s a time of changing historical epochs, breaking paradigms, updating the traditional system of values and establishing the new ideological priorities. In such conditions, innovative ideas and creative potential are in great demand. Generation of such ideas is the primary task of the Humanities. So, their role in the modern digital society is significantly increasing. For example, philosophy must protect society from the pressure of absurdity and destructiveness, from the growth of neurotic tendencies in culture. It must strengthen the self-consciousness and even the spirituality of the humans.

The significance of philosophical reflection in the digital era is determined by the fact that it’s able to create the new, constructive and vitally important meanings. It also protects and preserves the previous worldview orientations that have proved their effectiveness in history and in practice. Philosophy helps the modern humans to form a positive and optimistic socio-cultural position and to implement it in their lives. Like all other Humanities, philosophy teaches people to treat the surrounding world, makes them responsible and thoughtful, helps to reach balanced decisions. These qualities are very important in the field of solving difficult tasks that go beyond the potential of algorithmic, machine-type thinking.

References

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