Humanism in the Digital Age: Risks and Opportunities for Science and Democracy

Abstract

The ongoing digitalization presents a great challenge for the philosophical concept of humanism as it leads to many risks, including those that arise out of the assumption that computers can outperform humans in any task or job. Still, it is argued that it is an illusion based on erroneous premises, and that the development of the ICT sphere can actually augment humans by empowering them, presenting new possibilities: machines could perform more monotonous routine labor, while humans would be free to follow their creativity.

Keywords

• humanism
• democracy
• scientific rationality