I am myself and my gadget: the question of the personal technique impact on the personal identity
Abstract
The research direction of this article synthesizes urgent issues of phenomenology of personal identity and philosophy of technique. Uncontrollable increasing of technical impact on human life and self-understanding is determined not only with its quantitative growth, but also with quality turns in development of technology. Gadget – is a new being of modern technique which can be described as the personal “meta-thing”. In this study, author focuses his efforts on proving the thesis about a particular own perception of the gadget, through which the significant changes in the process of ongoing formation of identity are taking their place. The article reveals three main directions of the emergent influence of gadgets on the modern identity and personality. The first one is directed to the identity of body, and relies on the devices capabilities to become a part the human bodily space. The second one aims to impact in the identity of own activity. It’s based on the gadgets nontransparent functionality and automatism. Application of small gadget features, it is rather a new feature of the technical device, which is based on the similarity of gadget functions with features of human consciousness as self-control, self-awareness (self-understanding) and imagination. The third one, associated with the constitution of identity in a world of things. It reveals a huge narrative potential of the devices in comparison with other personal belongings. In contrast to other things and accessories, modern gadget has the technical ability to provide individual and fragments of his objectified image, which, in turn, gives the gadget such meaning as “meta-thing”. Specificity of the roles and functions of the gadget in the formation of modern identity of the person causing the need for further study of the possible consequences of the modern technology impact on the characteristics of human existence in the modern world
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