The Problem of the Subject in Artificial Nature

Abstract

The article discusses the situation with the subject and subjectivity that arises in the conditions of scientific and technological progress. The concept of the subject is introduced through the distinction between reflex (natural) and reflexive (artificial) processes of self-awareness, the subject is understood as a way of connecting “worlds” in the sense of K. R. Popper. The forms of reflection that create subjectivity are introduced as philosophical inventions in the sense of I. I. Lapshin as an aphorism, dialogue and system. The research methodology is of a general semiotic and neo-Kantian character: the function of subjectivity for artificial environments of human life is considered as a reflexive basis for constructing theories and carrying out technical activities, the performance of this function leads to a consistent transformation of nature due to the accumulation of artifacts in the sensually accessible physical world (the first artificial nature), in the rational world of logical-grammatical forms (the second artificial nature), in the world of reason or intellectual reflection (the third artificial nature). Based on the analysis of subjectivity in the first, second and third artificial nature, we conclude that the crisis of the subject and human subjectivity observed in the information society, expressed in the models of the subject-free objectivity of the technosphere or technological singularity is evidence of the exhaustion of the methodological resources of the subject’s analysis. The third artificial nature, i. e. a man-made technical environment that includes intellectual artifacts, autonomous intelligent agents of making socially significant decisions, needs a new philosophical invention that allows for self-awareness procedures. In the conclusion, the assumption is formulated that as such a new philosophical invention, the “environment” can be discussed that removes the “system” in the same sense in which the “system” removes the “dialogue”, and the latter – “aphorism”. Keywords: subject, technology, philosophy of technology, artificial nature, second nature, third nature, technological singularity