The Crisis of Humanities in Contemporary Society: Causes and Effects

Abstract

This article analyses the impact of information revolutions on culture, society, and education, as well as the individual. Contemporary technological consumer society presents a pathological model of relations between human beings and being – a situation that results in many social and cultural problematic features. This article explores these features of modern civilization from a philosophical (ontological) viewpoint, demonstrating that the current crises of humanities is rooted in this deeper ontological situation. The described features of modern information and cognitive metabolism in culture and education show the situation of the “ontological impasse”. In the current sociocultural situation, individuals have lost themselves as thinking entities and education has lost itself both as an institution and as a means of realizing the potential of a person’s spiritual and cognitive transformation. Knowledge has lost its value and sacredness, becoming based on pragmatism, usefulness and comfort. To overcome this situation, deep existential and ontological shifts are required.