DIGITALIZATION AS A CHALLENGE TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF VALUES:FROM INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY TO ALGORITHMIC CULTURE

Abstract

The article offers a comprehensive philosophical and axiological analysis of digitalization as one of the most significant transformations of contemporary civilization. Digitalization is examined not merely as technological advancement or the modernization of social infrastructures, but as a profound shift in the very mode of human existence, thinking, and cultural reproduction. The core focus of the study is the transformation of rationality: from the instrumental model characteristic of the modern era – oriented toward efficiency, control, and the rational mastery of the world – to algorithmic rationality shaped by digital technologies. Algorithmic rationality, grounded in computation, correlation-based logic, and the prediction of behavioral patterns, increasingly replaces traditional philosophical categories such as truth, goodness, freedom, and responsibility, thereby prompting a reconsideration of established axiological foundations within the humanities.
The article emphasizes the potential of digitalization for fostering open science, collective intelligence, digital humanism, and the integration of ethical norms into technological design. Digitalization, it is argued, can not only provoke a crisis of traditional values but also generate new forms of social interaction, participation, and creativity that expand the horizon of humanistic possibilities. At the same time, the realization of these possibilities depends on society’s capacity to critically evaluate algorithmic mechanisms and to implement principles of ethical design.
The study demonstrates that digitalization is not simply a techno-scientific phenomenon but a civilizational challenge that necessitates a renewal of the axiological paradigm. The philosophy of values must integrate contemporary technological realities into a humanistic discourse and cultivate a new mode of thinking capable of combining technological efficiency with the protection of human autonomy, dignity, and moral responsibility. Such an approach enables the preservation of the human dimension in a world increasingly shaped by the logic of algorithms and informational networks.