How Chinese Pragmatism Influences Use of Digital Technologies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The article is devoted to the use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, during the coronavirus pandemic in China. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of Chinese pragmatism in the application of digital technologies for combating COVID-19. The author identifies the areas where using of digital technologies is possible, and assesses the impact of Chinese pragmatism as a cultural setting on this process. A comparative analysis as the main research method was chosen. The author finds that in connection with the spread of the new coronavirus infection, Europe and the United States prefer to use digital technologies in science and medicine, while China extends their effects to the social field, using face recognition technology, unmanned aerial vehicles and the system of “health codes”. The author suggests that this decision is caused by the peculiarities of Chinese pragmatism, based on the predominance of practice over theory, reality over fiction and earthly life over an incorporeal afterlife. Comparing the characteristics of China’s applied rationality and pragmatism as a philosophical trend formed by C. Pierce, W. James and D. Dewey, as well as analyzing them in the context of a crisis situation triggered by the pandemic, the author comes to the following conclusion: despite the apparent similarity of these trends, significant differences can be identified, and they are expressed in the ways China and other countries use digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

• applied rationality
• artificial intelligence
• pragmatism
• coronavirus