Chapters authored
Cyberspace as a New Existential Dimension of Man
Since the second half of the twentieth century, especially from the 1990s to the present, we have seen significant sociocultural changes that have mostly been influenced by information technology. In the area of information technology, it is mainly the Internet that is the essential part of all modern communication technologies such as smartphones, iPads, and so on. The Internet is a new communication space, also called cyberspace, in which we not only communicate but also work, learn, buy, have fun, and so on. It does not seem to be a mere “tool” of our new way of communication, but a dimension that becomes part of our existence. We then have to ask how our existence is changing under the influence of new technologies. How do we change the value system in cyberspace communication? What are the possibilities and risks of communication in cyberspace? These are just some of the issues that arise in connection with communication in cyberspace to which we will seek answers. In the chapter we use the phenomenological and hermeneutic method. Through the phenomenological method, we examine the basic structure of cyberspace (Clark, Ropolyi) and, using a hermeneutic method, examine the differences between communication in cyberspace and old media (Lohisse, Postman, Bystřický).
Part of the book: Cyberspace
Cyberspace as a New Living World and Its Axiological Contexts
The subject of the chapter is cyberspace in an axiological perspective, which is our new lifeworld. The focus is particularly on the problem of the quality of our life in its specific circumstances. The aim is (on the background of the characteristics of cyberspace as a lifeworld) to solve the problem of values and significance, but also the risks of our so-called cyber experience. In this context, the aim is also to identify various conditions, axiological indicators and the relevant elements of the quality of our life in cyberspace. The authors pursue their goal using the phenomenological-hermeneutic method within the four parts of the chapter. In part 1, cyberspace is interpreted as a life world that is co-constructed in our acts of communication. In part 2, the problem of values, significance and risks of our cyber experience is discussed. The key variable is digital “well-being.” As they point out in part 3, it should be our morally based value “good life,” which is expressed as “ethos” in our life. In part 4, in this perspective, we are faced with the relevant task of the art of living ‘ars vivendi’ with the necessary coherent self-understanding and value-moral claims and the education should also have a “psychological” dimension.
Part of the book: Cyberspace