- Genre:philosophy
- Sub-genre:Epistemology
- Language:English
- Pages:352
- eBook ISBN:9798317844035
Book details
Overview
Modern civilization possesses unprecedented scientific knowledge, computational power, and global connectivity—yet epistemic fragmentation, irrationality, distrust, misinformation, disinformation, and even gaslighting as well as institutional instability continue to accelerate. The central paradox of modernity is stark: access to information has never been greater, while confidence in knowledge has never been lower.
This book examines the Pathology of Modernity: a condition shaped by technological acceleration, algorithmic influence and mediation, cognitive overload, and the widening disconnect between human cognition and the systems humans have created. Classical philosophy theorists such as Max Weber envisioned modernity as a progressive movement toward rationalization. Contemporary society increasingly suggests just the opposite. The result is epistemic fragmentation, systemic irrationality, cognitive dissonance, distorted feedback loops, performative morality, hyperreality, dissociation from material reality, and collective behaviors inconsistent with rational self-interest. Reasoning itself becomes contested terrain. Drawing on psychology, sociology, philosophy, cognitive science, and technology studies, this work explores how these along with an individual's confirmation bias, heuristic (mental shortcut) errors, and informational saturation, produce what may be described as societal "cognitive short-circuiting."
Understanding how the mind functions—and malfunctions—has become essential as humanity moves toward increasingly integrated human-artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Some would suggest a movement towards a Dystopian State. As we do so, recollect - "The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do." — B. F. Skinner.
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"We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom." — E. O. Wilson.
This book examines the disintegration or distortion of shared reality in the digital age. Traditional epistemological frameworks—once grounded in reason, investigation, journalism, and evidence assessment and corroboration—have increasingly fragmented under algorithmic curation, social-media echo chambers, and engagement-driven rather than reality-based informational systems.
Organized into fourteen chapters, the work analyzes major domains of systemic dysfunction within contemporary society, including:
Drawing from psychology, sociology, existential philosophy, media, and empirical research, the book argues that modern societies increasingly exhibit characteristics analogous to individual cognitive and behavioral pathology.
A central theme is existential disorientation: the destabilization of meaning, identity, trust, and reality itself within a technologically a mediated modern society. Hyper-connectivity has not produced coherence; instead, it has intensified ontological instability, institutional mistrust, and collective cognitive fragmentation and distortion.
The author's analysis further examines whether contemporary civilization is entering an emergent dystopian condition marked by the expansion of surveillance, behavioral nudging, algorithmic influence, and growing separation from material and social reality.
The proposition - Modern Society Is "Insane" – is both philosophical and civilizational:
Has technological advancement produced progress— or a sophisticated form of regression? Paradoxical Atavism.
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