Being Human in the Digital Age

Stanislas Bigirimana

Human nature has been traditionally conceived in a context of metaphysical dualism opposing the body to the soul. The replacement of metaphysical dualism by epistemological dualism did not change the view in Western philosophy that there is only one human nature and that human nature is evolving. In the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, Europeans considered themselves at the climax human development and civilization and assigned to non-Europeans races a lower stage on the ladder of evolution. Evolutionism is the general name given to development view of life and the universe as postulated by Darwin. In the digital age, a cybernetic model of reality which integrates material and mechanical aspects (hardware) with logic and symbolic aspects (software) will show that mind and consciousness are human control systems rather than ethereal substances. There are emotional, intellectual, ethical and pragmatic processes which take place concomitantly, in a way that the anthropological pauperization of Africans as having less mental abilities and are bent towards feeling rather than thinkin will be questioned. Last but not least, an epistemology of succession will show that knowing is first and most all an activity of the knower, henceforth, there were no metaphysical or rational grounds the West would have turned its particularity into a universality and that the best approach to radical and cultural diversity is following Lonergan’s transcendental method of being attentive, being intelligent, being reasonable and being responsible.