Digital Technology Environment and Humanities Classics

This study examines the role of humanities classics in the era of the accelerating Digital Turn. First, in light of L. Floridi’s information philosophy and B. Stiegler’s technology philosophy, the philosophical meaning of the current digital technology environment is elucidated. Based on this, it highlights the future of the humanities classics in the broader perspective of the PostHumanities that encompasses the Digital Humanities. According to Floridi, the conditions of human life after the computing and information revolution constitute the Infosphere, in which humans and non-humans form a cooperative network as equal informational entities. Stigler focuses on the algorithmic governmentality inherent in this Infosphere and calls for critical vigilance against the weakening of the human intellect. What role should the classics of the humanities play in a digital environment that is moving toward automation and virtualization of the real world? It must aim to recover the creative mental ability overwhelmed by the automated digital system, to uncover the real problems hidden behind the virtual world, and to prepare a new value and meaning of the life of a posthumanizing “human.” Humanities classics should not be limited to simply revitalizing the spirit of the liberal arts in traditional humanities or used for digitalizing humanities texts, but should contribute to discovering and creating the posthumanity that “we who are becoming” should have by triggering critical reflection and a new understanding of “we humans” standing at a historical turning point.