Digital reason vs. the modern "metamorphosis of man"

from the perspectives of the philosophical anthropology of józef bańka and anna-teresa Tymieniecka

Jan Szmyd

pp. 503-513

in: William S. Smith, Jadwiga Smith, Daniela Verducci (eds), Eco-Phenomenology, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

The paper contains a critical analysis of the digital reason understood as an antithesis for theoretical and practical reason and the heart's reason. The main thesis is as follows: digital reason performs a very important role in the field of quantitative cognizance of reality and acts as an accelerator of cognition, yet it is not capable of replacing natural theoretical and practical reason in the process of the quantitative cognition of reality, its essence, and development. It is not capable of understanding contacts with human subjectivity and personality, with the humanum. The domination of digital reason in a digital civilization would entail not only epistemological destruction but also the possibility of the inner disintegration of the subjective harmony and spiritual life of Homo sapiens and transformation of Homo sapiens into some kind of superficial humanoid post Homo sapiens.