Robert König
Originally published in Critical Journal of the History of Ideas 2, 2024 (EA 2022).
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Abstract: The following theses address the questions of why, how and to what extent digitality can and should be made an object of philosophy. In arguing my position, I am combining the methods of Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology and Kant’s moral philosophy. Therefore, we must first briefly say a few words about these methods. Hence, in an initial step, the philosophical concept of a transcendental phenomenon will be clarified. The second step applies this concept to digitality and to the process of digitalization. In the third step, the essence of digitalization will be discovered in a specific transcendental operation with space-time, which I call conversion to data or datafication. The fourth step highlights ethical, political and anthropological consequences of digital datafication according to Kantian (i.e. transcendental) ethics. In particular, the constitution of subjectivity and the chance for subjects to remain autonomous protagonists play a significant role in the digital age. On this basis, my results mark the extent to which philosophy and ethics are a central and necessary partner in the discourse about digitalization processes.
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