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Scientia et Fides

The dream of transcending the human through the digital matrix: A relational critique
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The dream of transcending the human through the digital matrix: A relational critique

Authors

  • Pierpaolo Donati University of Bologna, Bologna https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9794-132X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2019.022

Keywords

human transcendence, digital technologies, personhood, dehumanization, relational sociology, relational goods

Abstract

The advent of the digital era brings with it the dream of ‘transcending the human’ through the most sophisticated AI / robot technologies. The Author argues that the concept and practices of ‘transcendence’ are deeply ambiguous, since on the one hand they simply aim to overcome the weaknesses, limits and fragility of the human, while on the other hand they modify the human by selecting its specific qualities and its causal properties in a way to generate beings ‘other than human.’ As a matter of fact, post / trans-humanist ideologies, instead of strengthening the human, lead to its dehumanization because they imply the denial of the characteristics that are uniquely human and / or those that constitute human nature. To understand when new digital technologies enhance the human or distort it, it is necessary to analyze and evaluate social processes on the basis of a relational vision that shows us which human relationships emerge from the use of technologies.

Author Biography

Pierpaolo Donati, University of Bologna, Bologna

PAM - Professor Alma Mater
University of Bologna

References

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Archer, Margaret. 2019b. “Can Human Beings and AI Robots be Friends?.” Paper delivered at the PAS-PASS conference "Robotics, AI, and Humanity: Science, Ethics, and Policy", Vatican City: May 16-17.

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Baker, Lynne Rudder. 2013. “Technology and the Future of Persons.” The Monist 96: 37-53.

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Debaise, Didier. 2012. “What is Relational Thinking?.” Inflexions 5 : 1-11.

Donati, Pierpaolo. 2011. Relational Sociology. A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences. Abingdon: Routledge.

Donati, Pierpaolo. 2013. “Morphogenesis and Social Networks: Relational Steering not Mechanical Feedback.” In M.S. Archer (ed.). Social Morphogenesis. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 205-231.

Donati, Pierpaolo. 2019a. The Enigma of Relation and the Theological Matrix of Society, in P. Donati, A. Malo and G. Maspero (eds.). Social Science, Philosophy and Theology in Dialogue: A Relational Perspective. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 3-37.

Donati, Pierpaolo. 2019b. “Discovering the Relational Goods: Their Nature, Genesis and Effects.” International Review of Sociology/Revue international de Sociologie DOI 10.1080/03906701.2019.1619952

Donati, Pierpaolo. 2020. The Digital Matrix and the Hybridization of Society, in I. Al-Amoudi and E. Lazega eds. Post-human institutions and organisations: confronting the Matrix. Abingdon: Routledge.

Donati, Pierpaolo. 2021. “Being Human in the Digital Matrix Land.” In M. Carrigan, D. Porpora, and C. Wight (eds.). The future of the human and social relations. Abingdon: Routledge (in print).

Donati, Pierpaolo and Archer, Margaret. 2015. The Relational Subject. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Etzioni, Amitai and Etzioni, Oren. 2017. “Incorporating Ethics into Artificial Intelligence.” The Journal of Ethics 21(1): 1-16.

Floridi, Luciano. ed. 2015. The Onlife Manifesto. Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era New York: Springer.

Gehlen, Arnold. 1974. Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt [1940]. Frankfurt am Main: Athenaion Verlag.

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Scientia et Fides

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Published

2019-09-26

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1.
DONATI, Pierpaolo. The dream of transcending the human through the digital matrix: A relational critique. Scientia et Fides. Online. 26 September 2019. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 171-193. [Accessed 9 July 2025]. DOI 10.12775/SetF.2019.022.
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