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Draft:Digital Humanism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Comment: We read: [...] the publication of the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism. The manifesto, initiated by an international group of scholars, including Hannes Werthner [de], Edward R. Lee, [...] formulates key principles for digital humanism [...] (emphasis mine). The chunk I've emphasized is actually [[Edward A. Lee|Edward R. Lee]]. But there's no mention in the article Edward A. Lee of any pseudonymy. Are you sure that there's no mistake here? Hoary (talk)WWU 👍︎ 21:45, 2 July 2026 (UTC)
  • Comment: We read:
  • Comment: Not even a single token in this draft of the string digital humanities (about which there already exists the article Digital humanities)? Hoary (talk)WWU 👍︎ 07:46, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
This page is about study of the relationship between digital technology and society. For the application of digital technology to traditional humanities disciplines, see Digital humanities.

Digital humanism is an interdisciplinary field of study that investigates the complex interplay between digital technology and humankind. It combines perspectives from philosophy, computer science, humanities, law and the social sciences.[1][2][3]

Digital humanism is inspired by the Enlightenment and by classical humanism.[4][5] In line with these schools of thought, digital humanism regards the human being as the measure of all things, while reaffirming this principle for the digital age.[6] It sees digital technology and innovation not as an autonomous or inevitable force but as a sociotechnical construct that can be shaped through ethical reflection, democratic deliberation, and collective societal action.[7][8]

Digital humanism has emerged in response to the accelerated digital transformation through the widespread adoption of digital platforms, social media and Artificial Intelligence, and their impact on society. As a field of contemporary study, digital humanism seeks to understand digital transformation in society, based on ethics and social principles.[9][10][11] As a design and action framework digital humanism provides and promotes models for ethical and value-driven technology design[12] It promotes alignment of technological development with human rights, democracy and human well-being,[13][14] while critically scrutinizing technocratic and purely market-driven approaches.[15][16]

Concept and origin

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Digital humanism emerged in academic, political, and social debates during the late 2010s, gaining particular traction in Europe, especially in Germany, Austria and France. It draws on a range of different disciplines including philosophy, computer science and science and technology studies.[17] While it overlaps with a range of established fields, digital humanism reflects a new academic, engineering, and societal awareness of the challenges of digital technologies[18][19]

In Germany, one of the first major publications on the subject appeared in 2018 with the book Digitaler Humanismus[20] by Julian Nida-Rümelin and Nathalie Weidenfeld. This received the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Political Books and became a foundational contribution to the field. The authors argue that, although software systems can emulate human reasoning and surpass humans in various cognitive tasks, they are not capable of ethical or moral decisions and cannot therefore replace human responsibility. Central to this argument is the humanistic conviction that machines cannot become human, even if they perfectly simulate human behavior. Digital humanism rejects both this mechanistic view of the human subject as a machine as well as the animistic view, i.e. the attribution of consciousness to the computer.[21]

In France, the Syrian-Lebanese historian Milad Doueihi had already introduced the concept in his 2011 book: Pour un humanisme numérique[22]. Doueihi presented it as a provocative conceptual framework for reflection on digital culture, and for reconsidering what it means to be human in the face of profound technological transformation. For example, the author shows how the classical model of friendship, as exemplified by Aristotle's Ethics and Cicero's De amicitia,[23] is gradually being lost due to the transformative impact of digital technologies on our inter-subjective relationships (Doueihi, 2011, pp. 91–97).[24]

In Austria, a major impetus for the development of digital humanism emerged from the field of computer science, particularly at TU Wien,[7] which in 2019 launched an international platform for interdisciplinary dialogue through the publication of the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism. The manifesto—initiated by an international group of scholars, including Hannes Werthner [de], Edward A. Lee, Hans Akkermans, Moshe Vardi, Carlo Ghezzi, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, and Helga Nowotny—formulates key principles for digital humanism and calls for closer cooperation among academic disciplines, professional organizations, policy makers and civil society in addressing the societal consequences of digital transformation.[25]

Digital humanism should not be confused with digital humanities, an interdisciplinary domain that applies computational methods and digital technologies to the study of traditional humanities disciplines such as literature, history, linguistics, archeology and arts. In contrast, digital humanism is primarily concerned with the relationship between digital technologies and society. Whereas digital humanities employs digital technologies as research tools to advance scholarship in the humanities, digital humanism critically examines the societal implications of these technologies and seeks to ensure that the technological progress remains aligned with human interests and principles.

Controversies

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As with humanism more broadly, digital humanism is the subject of academic debate. Some critics argue that digital humanism presents predominantly male, white, colonial perspectives, resulting in limited inclusiveness.[26] Other scholars focus on the underlying anthropology of "digital humanism", arguing that it implicitly presupposes a particular conception of the human subject: the modern individual as citizen of a capitalist, liberal, individualist state. In this view digital humanism is said to reproduce a Eurocentric and androcentric model of humanity.[27]

Also, the grounding of digital humanism in Enlightenment thinking, and its promotion of "human-centred innovation", have been challenged in posthumanist studies, pointing at an implicit treatment of "humanity" as a homogeneous category and "human values" as universal. Critiques also concern a so-called structural anthropocentrism, drawing on arguments from animal and environmental studies.[28]

Additional criticism concerns the conceptual vagueness of digital humanism and a perceived gap between ethical aspirations and concrete implementation measures.[5] Some commentators further argue that digital humanism can be framed as a European counter-model to U.S. technological capitalism, but one without sufficient capacity for implementation[18]

See also

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  • EURIDICE – European Inclusive Education for Digital Society, Social Innovation and Global Citizenship

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian; Nuseibeh, Bashar; Prem, Erich; Stanger, Allison (2024). Introduction to Digital Humanism – A Textbook (1st ed.). Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG. pp. v–x. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5. ISBN 978-3-031-45303-8.
  2. ^ Hagedorn, Ludger; Schmid, Ute; Winter, Susan; Woltran, Stefan (20 November 2025). Digital Humanism. LNCS16319. Vol. 16319 (1st ed.). Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG. pp. v–vi. doi:10.1007/978-3-032-11108-1. ISBN 978-3-032-11107-4.
  3. ^ Wyatt, Sally (2022), "Interdisciplinarity: Models and Values for Digital Humanism", in Werthner, Hannes; Prem, Erich; Lee, Edward A.; Ghezzi, Carlo (eds.), Perspectives on Digital Humanism, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 329–334, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-86144-5_45, ISBN 978-3-030-86144-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  4. ^ Nida-Rümelin, Julian; Staudacher, Klaus (2024), "Philosophical Foundations of Digital Humanism", in Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian (eds.), Introduction to Digital Humanism, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 17–30, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_2, ISBN 978-3-031-45303-8, retrieved 2026-05-14
  5. ^ a b Coeckelbergh, Mark (2024-03-01). "What is digital humanism? A conceptual analysis and an argument for a more critical and political digital (post)humanism". Journal of Responsible Technology. 17 100073. doi:10.1016/j.jrt.2023.100073. ISSN 2666-6596.
  6. ^ Nida-Rümelin, Julian; Winter, Dorothea (2024), "Humanism and Enlightenment", in Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian (eds.), Introduction to Digital Humanism: A Textbook, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 3–16, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_1, ISBN 978-3-031-45304-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  7. ^ a b Werthner, Hannes (2025). Digital humanism: on digitalization and artificial intelligence. Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-86904-4.
  8. ^ Akkermans, Hans; Gordijn, Jaap; Bon, Anna (2022), "Return to Freedom: Governance of Fair Innovation Ecosystems", in Werthner, Hannes; Prem, Erich; Lee, Edward A.; Ghezzi, Carlo (eds.), Perspectives on Digital Humanism, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 53–60, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-86144-5_8, ISBN 978-3-030-86143-8, retrieved 2026-05-14
  9. ^ Pettinari, Sara; De Sanctis, Martina; Inverardi, Paola (2026). "Realizing Ethical-Aware Business Processes". In Hagedorn, Ludger; Schmid, Ute; Winter, Susan; Woltran, Stefan (eds.). Digital Humanism. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 16319. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. pp. 219–235. doi:10.1007/978-3-032-11108-1_16. ISBN 978-3-032-11108-1.
  10. ^ Werthner, Hannes (2024), "Digital Transformation, Digital Humanism: What Needs to Be Done", in Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian (eds.), Introduction to Digital Humanism: A Textbook, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 115–132, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_8, ISBN 978-3-031-45304-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  11. ^ Inverardi, Paola (2022), "The Challenge of Human Dignity in the Era of Autonomous Systems", in Werthner, Hannes; Prem, Erich; Lee, Edward A.; Ghezzi, Carlo (eds.), Perspectives on Digital Humanism, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 25–29, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-86144-5_4, ISBN 978-3-030-86144-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  12. ^ Prem, Erich; Neidhardt, Julia; Knees, Peter; Woltran, Stefan; Werthner, Hannes (2023-09-19), Vrijenhoek, Sanne; Michiels, Lien; Kruse, Johannes; Starke, Alain (eds.), Digital Humanism and Norms in Recommender Systems, vol. 3639, TU Wien, TU Wien, doi:10.34726/8560, retrieved 2026-05-14
  13. ^ Metakides, George (2024), "Democracy in the Digital Era", in Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian (eds.), Introduction to Digital Humanism: A Textbook, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 495–509, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_31, ISBN 978-3-031-45304-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  14. ^ Prem, Erich (2024), "Approaches to Ethical AI", in Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian (eds.), Introduction to Digital Humanism: A Textbook, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 225–239, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_15, ISBN 978-3-031-45304-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  15. ^ Nowotny, Helga (2022), "Digital Humanism: Navigating the Tensions Ahead", in Werthner, Hannes; Prem, Erich; Lee, Edward A.; Ghezzi, Carlo (eds.), Perspectives on Digital Humanism, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 317–321, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-86144-5_43, ISBN 978-3-030-86144-5, retrieved 2026-05-14
  16. ^ Díaz de la Cruz, Cristina; Fernández Fernández, José Luis; Villegas-Galaviz, Carolina (2025-10-01). "Model of ethical analysis of digital technologies: towards true digital humanism". AI & Society. 40 (7): 5743–5754. doi:10.1007/s00146-025-02330-w. ISSN 1435-5655.
  17. ^ Nida-Rümelin, Julian; Staudacher, Klaus (2024), "Philosophical Foundations of Digital Humanism", in Werthner, Hannes; Ghezzi, Carlo; Kramer, Jeff; Nida-Rümelin, Julian (eds.), Introduction to Digital Humanism: A Textbook, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 17–30, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_2, ISBN 978-3-031-45304-5, retrieved 2026-04-20
  18. ^ a b Prem, Erich (2024-03-01). "Principles of digital humanism: A critical post-humanist view". Journal of Responsible Technology. 17 100075. doi:10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100075. ISSN 2666-6596.
  19. ^ Elbanna, Amany; Carlsson, Linnéa (2026). "Digital Humanism in IS Research: A Research Agenda for a New Movement to Re-center the Human". In Elbanna, Amany; Janssen, Marijn; Dwivedi, Yogesh K.; Hossain, Mohammad; Islind, Anna Sigridur (eds.). Digital Adoption, Diffusion and Innovation in the Augmented and Digital Society. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. Vol. 779. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. pp. 117–129. doi:10.1007/978-3-032-16779-8_8. ISBN 978-3-032-16779-8.
  20. ^ Nida-Rümelin, Julian (2018). "Digitaler Humanismus: Eine Ethik für das Zeitalter der Künstlichen Intelligenz" [Digital Humanism - An Ethics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence] (in German) (1st ed.). Piper e-books. pp. 1–224. ISBN 3492992145, 9783492992145. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  21. ^ Nida-Rümelin, Julian; Weidenfeld, Natalie (2022). Digital humanism: For a humane transformation of democracy, economy and culture in the digital age. Cham: Springer Nature. p. 127. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-12482-2. ISBN 978-3-031-12482-2. (Also ISBN 978-3-031-12481-5.)
  22. ^ Doueihi, Milad (2011-02-10). Pour un humanisme numérique (in French) (1st ed.). Paris: Seuil. pp. 1–192. ISBN 978-2021000894.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  23. ^ "Laelius de Amicitia", Cicero: Laelius on Friendship and The Dream of Scipio, Liverpool University Press, 1990-01-15, pp. 75–118, doi:10.2307/jj.38238856.7, ISBN 978-1-83553-938-5, retrieved 2026-05-17
  24. ^ Doueihi, Milad (2011). "Pour un humanisme numérique". Communication & Languages. 167 (1): 3–15. doi:10.4074/S033615001101101X.
  25. ^ Pezzano, Giacomo (2024-03-01). "Are we done with (wordy) manifestos? Towards an introverted digital humanism". Journal of Responsible Technology. 17 100078. doi:10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100078. ISSN 2666-6596.
  26. ^ Prem, Erich (2024). "Principles of digital humanism: A critical post-humanist view". Journal of Responsible Technology, 17. 17 100075. doi:10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100075 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
  27. ^ Lucci, Antonio; Osti, Andrea (2024-03-01). "Exit (digital) humanity: Critical notes on the anthropological foundations of 'digital humanism'". Journal of Responsible Technology. 17 100077. doi:10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100077. ISSN 2666-6596.
  28. ^ Buongiorno, Federica; Chiaramonte, Xenia (2024-06-01). "Do we really need a 'digital humanism'? A critique based on post-human philosophy of technology and socio-legal techniques". Journal of Responsible Technology. 18 100080. doi:10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100080. ISSN 2666-6596.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Brey, Philip (2020): The Strategic Role of Technology in a Good Society: Digital Humanism in Practice. Springer.
  • Floridi, Luciano (2014): The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford University Press.
  • Werthner, Hannes, and George Metakides. (2025) Digital Humanism. Springer Nature.
  • Werthner, Hannes and Prem, Erich and Lee, Edward A., & Ghezzi, Carlo. (Eds.). (2022) Perspectives on digital humanism (p. 342). Berlin: Springer.
  • Werthner, Hannes (2024) Digitaler Humanismus. Über Digitalisierung und Künstliche Intelligenz. Picus, Wien. ISBN 978-3-7117-3035-0.
[edit]
  • The Digital Humanism Initiative – an international collaboration seeking to build a community of scholars, policy makers, and industrial partners
  • EUDHIT – The European Digital Humanism Initiative

Category:Ethics of science and technology Category:Humanism Category:Information society Category:Sociology of technology

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