The Transcendence of Information Philosophy to the Crisis of Modernity ^†

Abstract

Information philosophy is a complete theoretical system that has flourished with the third revolution in science and technology. Information philosophy believes that the world is composed of information and matter, and it is the highest-level discipline in contemporary information science. The problem of modernity has a long history and has had a huge impact on human life. However, many problems have arisen in the process of social transformation. The various consequences of the transformation of modern society have become today’s one of the focus topics. As the essence of the theoretical system of the information age, information philosophy has a certain transcendence in grasping modernity issues. This article attempts to examine the issue of modernity through the perspective of information philosophy, and to provide theoretical wisdom for the modernization of human society.

1. Introduction

Chinese and foreign philosophers have a long history of exploring the origin of the world, and have formed the most basic ontological question in philosophy. In different historical periods, philosophers gave different answers on ontology. The ancient Greek philosopher Thales believed that “water” is the origin of all things. Plato regards “ideas” as the foundation of the world. In Chinese philosophy, “Tao produces all things”, “Five Elements Theory”, and “Nothing outside the heart” are all early thoughts on the origin of the world. After the second technological revolution, people realized that the world is not only material, but also full of energy. People not only discovered the manifestations of energy existing in the universe, namely mechanical energy, light energy, etc., but also discovered that mass is energy, and mass and energy can be interchanged. The third scientific and technological revolution is another major leap in the field of human science and technology. The third scientific and technological revolution involves information technology and new energy technology, and is an information control technology revolution covering many fields. Information science has developed vigorously on the basis of the third scientific and technological revolution. The clarity of the concept of information has revealed to mankind the indirect information world corresponding to the directly existing material world. “The origin of the world is not only matter, energy, but also information. The world is composed of matter, energy, and information” [1] (p. 39). Due to the discovery of the field of indirect existence, the way of human understanding has undergone earth-shaking changes, and at the same time, a subversive reconstruction has been produced in the field of philosophy.

The concept of “information philosophy” has become a hot research topic in the world for more than ten years. It aroused the attention and participation of more and more scholars. What is the nature of information? This issue has triggered a long-term debate among scholars, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has included it in the “100 Cross-Science Problems in the 21st Century”. Professor Wu Kun is the earliest expert in the research of philosophy of information in my country. He introduced the concept of information into philosophy as one of the most basic categories of philosophy. Mr. Wu Kun asserted: “The world is unified on a material basis, and it is a world where both the material world and information exist” [2]. Professor Wu Kun’s re-segmentation of fields laid the logical foundation for the study of philosophy of information. Traditional philosophy divides the entire world into two major fields, material and spiritual. That is, “existence = matter + spirit”, where “material = objective reality = reality = direct existence”, and spirit is equivalent to subjective unreality. However, information philosophy believes that not all objective things are real.Information philosophy combines objective unreality with subjective unreality, which is called indirect existence, that is, information. This makes a new division of the realm of existence, that is, the world is equal to matter and information. The issue of modernity has become a worldwide phenomenon in the context of globalization. Interpreting the issue of modernity through the perspective of information philosophy helps us build a beautiful home for mankind.

2. The Dimension and Crisis of Modernity Issues

The issue of modernity originated in the West and has now become a worldwide phenomenon, which has had a great impact on human life. The issue of modernity was initially closely intertwined with “enlightenment”. The enlightenment in the 18th century was a human “liberation” movement guided by reason. Under the guidance of reason, the world under the shadow of theology and religion fell apart, and mankind Subjective consciousness is awakened, and people who have gone through enlightenment no longer live spontaneously, heterogeneously, and passively, but rely on knowledge and rationality as the basis for their behavior. “You must have the courage to use your own reason! This is the slogan of enlightenment” [3] (p. 22). However, rationality is at the core. The spirit of enlightenment has not fulfilled its promises. Horkheimer and Adorno wrote in the classic work “Dialectics of Enlightenment” in the modernity critique: “In the most general sense of progressive thinking, the fundamental goal of enlightenment is to Let people get rid of fear and establish independence. However, the completely enlightened world is shrouded in a disaster caused by victory [4] (p. 37)”. The spirit of enlightenment wanted to get rid of the myth, but it has become a new myth.

People get rid of the rule of religion, but use rationality to construct a well-organized bureaucracy and strengthen the management and control of the people. People are “dehumanized”, playing only a functional role with no individual characteristics, and becoming a part of a social machine. Lametri asserted: “Man as a living organism is actually not much different from a machine, but more sophisticated than an ordinary machine” [5] (p. 36). Bureaucracy has been made into an irreplaceable mechanism for social machines, and people’s desire for freedom is firmly confined in a rationalized “social iron cage”.

In addition, with the increasing expansion of tool rationality, the natural world on which people live has been completely objectified and reduced to a place for human experimentation and raw material production. However, the result of man’s action to conquer nature did not make himself the master of nature. Man’s attempt to dominate the natural world led to a sharp deterioration in the relationship between man and nature, triggering nature’s revenge on mankind. Equality and human rights are both the spiritual core of modern society, but they have now been dispelled by power capital, discourse hegemony, and pervasive “knowledge power”. In a world where instrumental rationality prevails, not only is human and nature alienated from each other, but humans themselves are also alienated, human existence no longer has a creative purpose, but manifests itself as a passive, mechanical activity. From Weber to Western Marxists, they not only realized the spiritual and cultural crisis of modern people, but also keenly observed the lack of meaning of human life brought about by modernity.

Nowadays, the development of human science and technology has entered the stage of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is an era in which information technology is used to promote industrial transformation. Industry 4.0 has brought new technologies, and new technologies will bring new problems and challenges to people under the conditions of big data technology. The monitoring of people becomes more rigorous, and people’s privacy protection has become an increasingly prominent issue. Gene editing technology can be applied to any cell, and human gene transplantation is no longer a fantasy. How should the essential attributes of humans be regulated after the transformation of human genes? Philosophers of many schools have criticized and pondered the issue of modernity from different angles, hoping to bring reflection and vigilance.

3. Modernity Issues under the Theory of Information Philosophy

Information philosophy believes that the world is an information field. The role of information in the development of human society in the information age will be more prominent than ever, and the predicament of modern society will be surpassed in the gradual development of the information age. “Human society is based on different information processing, creation, and dissemination methods in different civilizations” [1]. The information processing method in the information age and the one-way, top-down information processing method in the industrial age are quite different. The philosophy of information believes that today’s human alienation and human inequality are left over from the industrial age, and these leftover problems can be solved in the information age. “Networked information processing and dissemination are interactive in their form. The basic characteristics of parallelism, openness, freedom, sharing and non-authoritarianism” [1]. The equality and interactivity of information dissemination help get rid of the oppression of one-way information dissemination.

Value is the effect achieved by things (materials, information, including the subjective form of information-spirit) through internal or external interactions. Lai Jinliang asserted: “Humanity value is the ultimate criterion of normative value and utility value” [6]. Information Philosophy Humanity value and heaven value (nature) are relative concepts. Information value theory believes that heaven value is higher than humanity value, but heaven value does not deny humanity value. People should regard nature as their own matrix or foundation. These views have had a huge impact on the dominant anthropocentrism since the industrial age, and have a strong sense of transcendence. The philosophy of information believes that the information society brings about the liberalization, diversification and comprehensiveness of individual development, and the development results of the information age liberate people from machine production, and human production activities will be diverse and selective creative activities. Information Methodology explains in detail the reasons for the all-round development of human personality in the information society. The first is due to the widespread adoption of intelligent information technology. The second is due to the unprecedented increase in productivity. The third is the change in the relationship between labor and people. As labor is increasingly becoming more scientific, the antagonistic relationship inherent in traditional labor with labor will gradually ease. Human beings are no longer passive and mechanical, and the problems of human “alienation” and lack of life consciousness will gradually be solved.

4. Conclusions

Modernity is a multi-dimensional concept involving all aspects of social life. Many scholars have carried out in-depth research on the issue of modernity with great enthusiasm. The future society will be an era of smart technology led and created by information. As the essence of the theoretical system of the information age, information philosophy has been extensively applied to many disciplines. From the perspective of information philosophy, we can deeply feel that information philosophy has grasped the transcendence of modern social issues in the dimensions of information dissemination, the relationship between man and nature, and the freedom and liberation of man. In the era of information and intelligence, human society will face new opportunities and challenges. As the essence of the spirit of the times, the philosophy of information needs to shoulder the important theoretical task of using the logic of information theory to analyze the problems of the new era and provide theoretical assistance for the construction of the new era and human well-being. Therefore, strengthening the in-depth exploration of the theoretical system of information philosophy has a significant role in promoting the construction of modern human society.