Being Human in a Virtual Society
A Relational Approach
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Introduction: Understanding the morphogenesis of the human in a virtual society
- Chapter 1: Transcending the human?
- 1. The issue: ‘transcending the human’ or rather ‘morphogenesis of the human’?
- 2. Rethinking human evolution
- 3. The distinction human/non-human as a transcendental relation, and its enigma
- 4. Perspectives: Human beings transcend themselves in social relations (not in themselves, nor in technologies)
- Chapter 2: Redefining the human in the face of hybridization with the Digital Technological Matrix (DTM)
- 1. The ambivalence of new technologies
- 2. The challenge of hybridization
- 3. Digital revolution, human enhancement and social relations
- 4. Confronting the digital matrix: The transition to the Humanted
- 5. The process of hybridization
- 6. Can an organization using digital technologies achieve human enhancement?
- 7. Personhood and human dignity
- 8. Redefining the human in hybridized organizations
- 9. Summary: Being human before and after the matrix
- Chapter 3: Connecting the human and the social through the Third included
- 1. The removal of the Third (included) is at the origin of today’s existential crises
- 2. Three semantic matrices of the Third, depending on whether it is included or excluded
- 3. Understanding the relational order of reality from which the Third emerges
- 4. The Third included requires a ‘relational gaze’ to be seen
- 5. The Third and the human character of social forms
- 6. The future of any humanism depends on how we understand and manage the Third
- Chapter 4: The enigma of social relations as a badge of humanness
- 1. The social relation as an enigma
- 2. The enigma of the relationship in Western modernity
- 3. The reality of the enigma
- 4. To manage the enigma, one needs to act with relational reflexivity and relational feedbacks
- 5. The solution of the enigma requires a relational social ontology
- 6. On the relational constitution of the human person
- 7. Human flourishing consists in enjoying relational goods
- Chapter 5: Rethinking the essence of being human: Relational essentialism
- 1. On human dignity: dignitas sequitur esse?
- 2. Human essence is relational difference: Can we speak of a ‘relational essentialism’?
- 3. Human identity as the indefinite re-entry of its relational distinctions
- 4. The human and the morphogenic process of hybridisation
- 5. Towards a new semantics of the human (relational humanism)
- 6. Which humanism, if any?
- 7. Conclusions: How to redistinguish humanism
- References
- Index of Names
- Series Index
Pierpaolo Donati
Being Human in a Virtual Society
A Relational Approach
Berlin - Lausanne - Bruxelles - Chennai - New York - Oxford
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the
Library of Congress.
ISSN 1618-775X
ISBN 978-3-631-91349-9 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-91798-5 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-91799-2 (EPUB)
DOI 10.3726/b21930
© 2024 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne
Published by Peter Lang GmbH, Berlin, Deutschland
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This publication has been peer reviewed.
About the author
Pierpaolo Donati, Alma Mater Professor of Sociology at the University of Bologna (Italy) and former President of the Italian Sociological Association, is internationally known as the founder of an original relational sociology or relational theory of society. Author of over 800 publications, he has carried out empirical research on different aspects of social change, developing new concepts such as relational goods, relational reflexivity, relational welfare, then focusing on the ontology of social morphogenesis. Among his recent books is Transcending Modernity with Relational Thinking (London 2021).
About the book
The book addresses the theme of the advent of a ‘Matrix Land’ as a pervasive environment of digital (virtual) reality in which humanity is destined to live increasingly distant from its original natural condition. The challenge posed by the Matrix Land is that of a future society in which lifeworlds and social relations lose the classic notions of time and space. Time and space become illusions and come to depend on algorithms. Virtual reality will prevail over human nature, so much so that human beings will think that what previously appeared real to them was instead pure imagination if not an illusion. Digital logic will replace analog thinking. What will remain of the human? According to the Author, the underlying sociological problem is not whether or not it will be possible to build AI and robots capable of emulating the human mind in whole or in large part. The sociological question is how new technologies change human life to the extent that, by modifying knowledge and communication, they modify people’s relational life, social forms and therefore the entire society. The technologies that lead humanity towards the post/transhuman must be analyzed and evaluated based on the criteria of which human relationships they assume and which they produce. We need to see whether they support solutions that increase the ethical and empathetic sense of social relationships or, vice versa, fuel relationships devoid of human meaning.
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Chapter 2: Redefining the human in the face of hybridization with the Digital Technological Matrix (DTM)
1. The ambivalence of new technologies
Digital media are destined to spread more and more, and will have an exponential development, combining the internet, artificial intelligence and robotics. This digital revolution brings with it great risks. It has deep ambivalent effects. On one side significantly increases the potential of human beings. On the other, digital media can also expose people to the risk of addiction, isolation and a gradual loss of contact with concrete reality, blocking the development of authentic interpersonal relationships.
What can be done to avoid the evils?
Details
- Pages
- 184
- Publication Year
- 2024
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783631917985
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9783631917992
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9783631913499
- DOI
- 10.3726/b21930
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2024 (April)
- Keywords
- Being Human Virtual Society Human augmented (Humanted) Humanism Relational essentialism Digital Technological Matrix
- Published
- Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2024. 184 pp., 4 fig. b/w, 3 tables.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
