Destinies of the subject in a society almost completely seduced by knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the possible destinies of the subject in a contemporary society that has been almost completely immersed in and seduced by knowledge, especially knowledge generated in the context of digital technology. First, there will be a quick review of the path taken by the knowledge society from the point of view of two central aspects: governance and sociability. Next, this article will evaluate some of the impacts of digital technology on today’s society, which will consider the interaction between the subject and the knowledge society. This will be done through a sociogenetic analysis, based on historical-cultural psychology. A knowledge society should express itself in a variety of ways, especially starting from principles linked to democracy or social exclusion. At the same time, this dubiety leads some researchers to take on ambiguous positions, sometimes mistrusting knowledge and cultural achievements, sometimes displaying excessive optimism. In this context, one of the possible destinies for the subject once provoked might be to resist the temptation of the charms of the knowledge society, not affording it undue value, but also not underestimating it, thereby the term ‘almost’. A society of subjects situated historically faces the challenge, not of managing knowledge as something ‘per se’, but of understanding that it is the subject who precedes all the various instances of worldly life.