“Information Isn’t Knowledge”: Denis Rougemont on the Verge of the Information Society

Abstract

Today it’s not possible to deny the approach of the new epoch – the epoch of the information society. The high technologies have infiltrated the total scope of the everyday life of modern people. In 2020 our civilization confronted the new, but for a long time anticipated, challenge, - mass introduction of distant education in schools and universities. We still will have to comprehend the results of this social experiment in the nearest future. Still one fact arises no doubts: information nowadays is the product that is widely and easily (perhaps, too easily) accessible, but real knowledge remains the lot of the few, and even tend to marginalize. Forty years ago the stated problems became the issue of the studies of the Swiss philosopher Denis de Rougemont. His conclusions turn out to be more and more relevant with the acceleration of the process of culture, communications and education digitalization. His article “Information Isn’t Knowledge” has been published in Russian for the first time. The article deals with the issues of information technologies integration into the human cognitive activity, its influence on the thinking process and cultural, ethic and spiritual values formation. Denis de Rougemont step by step reveals the definition of information technologies, their application in various areas of human existence, their ability to compete with personality and the consequences of their integration in everyday life. These speculations become especially valuable in the era of the triumph for information society and global computerization.