Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 2, 2023

Philosophical Thought in the Age of the Written Word and the Digital Age

(Abstract)

Wang Qingjie

Throughout human history, changes in knowledge media have often led to revolutionary changes in culture and civilization. The emergence of computer and mobile internet technologies marked the replacement of written texts by their digital forms: the digitally constructed virtual world has become the main medium of history and culture and a platform for our social life. This is a new era. In this sense, we probably belong to the last generation of “literati” and the first generation of “the digital age.” Like the age of letters, the philosophical essence of the digital age, I would claim, still consists in “naming,” or “forcing words to speak of…,” rather than merely “counting” or “calculation.” “Wording” and “counting” are different stages of “naming” in the long evolutionary history of human civilization. Clarifying the limits and confusion caused by these different ways of naming, as well as understanding and exploring their nature and boundaries, have become the fundamental task of philosophical reflection in the new digital era. In order to achieve this goal, we need to return to the origin of philosophy, i.e., “to know that one knows nothing!”