Epistemological and Cultural Critique of Digital Technology and Its Impact on Knowledge Production and Scientific Research

Abstract

Contemporary digital transformation has raised anew the ontological question concerning the relationship between humans and technology in the digital realm, as a moment of rupture rather than merely a natural transition from an anthropological and cultural condition to a new context. Rather, it constitutes a practice and a mode of belonging situated between human history and the present, which has paved the way for questioning and investigating the nature of this new relationship.

Accordingly, this study discusses the epistemological and cultural crisis resulting from the acceleration and intensification of digital technology, drawing on three approaches. The first is an onto-epistemological approach represented by Bernard Stiegler in his theorization of the relationship between humans and technology; the second is a cultural approach represented by Nicholas Carr in his observation of the cognitive transformations affecting the brain and patterns of thinking; and the third is represented by Luciano Floridi through the philosophy of information as a new form of independence from classical knowledge. The study problem is crystallized in the idea that technology does not automatically deprive us of meaning; rather, it redefines the conditions of its production and competes for attention and time. The paper concludes that the absence of critical awareness and supportive educational institutions threatens to lead to epistemological superficiality and narrative fragmentation, whereas understanding technology as a space of conflict opens up a renewed possibility for reconstructing and directing meaning.