Technology, Social Normativity and the Public Sphere in Herder’s Philosophy of History and in the Age of Digitization

Abstract: Herder’s critical engagement with Bacon in This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity (1774) describes a basic constellation of modern technological civilization that still shapes our times. Technological progress plays a crucial role in the self-perpetuating momentum of the global “system of trade” (Herder) that was established by the Western colonial powers. This process promoted, on the one hand, the formation of universal norms by the Enlightenment, on the other hand, these norms still function as an ideological legitimation basis of policies of economic and military power. Herder appeals to his contemporaries to get control of the self-perpetuating momentum of modern Western civilization that has a self-destructive trait. We meet the ambivalence of technological progress described by Herder in digitization, too. Due to the decline of the West’s global dominance, digital capitalism could drive the actual disintegration of Western societies forward to a critical phase.

Key words: Francis Bacon, Herder, historical society, modern civilization, Habermas, digitization.

DOI: 10.26350/9788834352595_000005