[Keywords:] information age; Subjectivity; Development; Expression form
"Man's subjectivity is the qualitative stipulation of man as the subject of activity, and it is the characteristic of consciousness, autonomy, initiative and creativity developed by man in the interaction with the object." [1] Its development is closely related to the development of science and technology in each era, which is both historical and realistic. Stepping into the information age, human subjectivity inherits its inherent connotation and attributes, and at the same time presents typical characteristics belonging to this era. As an extension of human sensory organs and brain and a tool system for intelligence amplification, networking, digitalization and virtualization technologies enhance the cognitive ability of subjects, expand social communication among subjects, enrich the practice methods of subject activities and greatly improve human subjectivity.
First, the expansion of subjective cognitive activities.
Cognition is the active reflection and creation of the subject to the object, and it is the understanding of the essence and law of the object, which often needs the help of certain intermediary means. The development and application of information technology has promoted the high development and consciousness of the subject's rationality and wisdom, greatly improved the subject's cognitive ability, continuously expanded the cognitive field, and significantly enhanced the ability of knowledge application and innovative thinking.
(a) Cognitive ability to acquire technical features. The cognitive ability of the subject [2] is produced and developed in the activities of understanding and transforming the world, and is restricted by the level of scientific and technological development of the times. People's cognitive process begins at the perceptual stage, and people form an intuitive reflection of things' one-sidedness, phenomena and external relations through perceptual knowledge. The development of contemporary information technology provides people with a brand-new information world integrating sports, audio and video, which greatly expands people's audio-visual sensory organs and provides an important means for people to know the world concretely, vividly and vividly. Knowledge ability is the promotion and development of subjective perceptual ability, which is embodied as "a series of abstract analysis processes". In the information age, knowledge ability is manifested as the ability to explore, refine, summarize and analyze new things and phenomena in the process of social development. Usually, the definition of concepts and categories is completed by theoretical workers, and with the help of the power of the network, the concepts and categories concerned by intellectuals are more and more widely participated and completed by the public, which reflects the general improvement of social and human knowledge ability and constitutes an important link to improve the cognitive ability of subjects in the information age. Rational ability is the ability to reflect the whole and essence of things at a higher level in the human brain and fully understand and master the essence and laws of things. With the virtual thinking of man-machine integration gradually replacing physical thinking, human beings began to recognize the world in an interactive, nonlinear and dynamic way. People can not only plan the practice plan in advance, but also make use of virtual technology for pre-practice, which opens up many possibilities for human beings to explore the inherent laws of the existence and development of things and truly realizes the rational freedom of the subject.
(2) The network has expanded the cognitive field. In the past, human cognition was limited by the cognitive ability of the subject and could only be carried out under very limited conditions. Cyberspace is the dimension created by computers. Within the framework of this space, all elements of knowledge, such as words, data and symbols, are accurately memorized, stored and controlled, which creates an environment for people to enjoy knowledge, so that every cognitive subject can combine information and knowledge at will and realize a kind of "Platonic epistemology". [3]
More importantly, Cyberspace also provides a new way of modern space cognition for human beings. In Kant's view, space is an intuitive form of human mind. The intuitive experience of sensory objects is based on the pure intuition of time and space, so the key to spatial cognition lies in grasping the intuitive perceptual form of things. Although this view of space is wrong in essence (because Kant regards the form of feeling as a real phenomenon that precedes the object), it is instructive for people to grasp the cyberspace. When people enter cyberspace, they will first have a perceptual cognitive form of the object world, and get a sense of space directly from this form. Feeling space is feeling form, and cognitive space is cognitive form. Therefore, the unique composition of cyberspace gives people a cognitive way to explore space again. It is worth noting that cyberspace is not a priori, and its composition is still reflected in the logic and technology of human experience. Its "otherness" and "uniqueness" are not abandoning the real physical space, but further expanding and continuing it.
(3) The way of thinking has changed surreally. Engels said: "The theoretical thought of every era, including our own, is the product of history, which has completely different forms and contents in different times." [4] In the farming era, the level of human science and technology is backward, and the space for survival and development is very narrow. Most people take themselves as the frame of reference, attach great importance to the accumulation of experience and knowledge, and gradually form a backward thinking mode based on the past. With the more developed socialized mass production in industrial society and the invention and application of new means of transportation, people broke the relatively closed and isolated social relations in the farming era, began to seek external reference frames in the tense of * * * *, and created the thinking mode of human beings paying attention to reality. With the development of human society entering the information age, the role of information is increasingly prominent. People feel more and more that only innovation can bring information appreciation and knowledge renewal, prompting people to start looking for a future-oriented frame of reference and gradually form a creative and surreal dynamic thinking mode based on the future.
In the past, human beings also carried out creative and surreal thinking activities through imagination and association. But the creativity of this kind of thinking activity only increases with the base, and surrealism is only individual, limited and unsystematic. The pure physical way of thinking [5] still dominates. The emergence of network technology and virtual technology has broken through the absolute dependence of human beings on the real world, formed networked, interactive and visualized thinking activities, and created a kind of "relational reality" and "technical reality". The technical intermediary system of thinking has evolved from the previous tool composition to an important part of digital reality, and people's understanding of things has correspondingly changed from the ontological and ultimate way of thinking to the subjective and interactive way of thinking, and human beings really have a dynamic, relational and creative way of thinking.
Second, the change of the subject's communication activities.
Communication is an important category of Marxist historical materialism. In the creative practice, people are constantly engaged in diversified and interactive communication activities, and thus form increasingly rich social relations. In the information age, network communication has developed closer and richer social relations between people, which is not only beneficial for the subject to communicate with others in the brand-new virtual world, but also beneficial for the subject to broaden his horizons, enrich his experience and constantly enrich and develop himself.
(1) Diversification of modes of communication. Communication is an important aspect of human practice. Restricted by the level of human practice, different communication ways form different communication relationships. Different from the way of communication in agricultural society and industrial society, the network technology based on digital technology has created a new way of communication based on network relationship. In the information age, people begin to adopt more indirect ways of network communication. The emergence of new online communication tools such as e-mail, BBS, instant chat software, etc., has provided diversified communication means for people's work and life, which is convenient for people to choose independently according to their hobbies and needs, and has become an important way for people's spiritual communication, ideological exchange, information dissemination, emotional catharsis and emotional exchange. At the same time, the development of communication has promoted the development of people. With the enrichment of human communication in the information age, the society has higher and higher requirements for people's ability and quality, and personal intelligence level, cultural quality and moral cultivation have also been continuously improved with the needs and development of society. (2) Interaction of communication methods. In real communication, the subject of communication, whether it is an individual or the same person, and the way of communication, whether it is material communication or spiritual communication, must be based on real individuals. The two sides of communication are both the subject and the object of communication, which embodies the mutual communication between subjects, that is, between subjects and special objects. In the past, due to the limitation of communication time and space, subject identity and status, people often needed to use traditional mass media to obtain useful information. Fundamentally speaking, this is a one-way communication mode, and the audience's initiative in the communication process is very weak. The emergence of network communication broke the law of one-way communication and realized the direct two-way communication of information between communicators and audiences and between audiences. People have really formed a new type of internet relationship for mutual communication and dialogue, and people have more opportunities to communicate freely with the outside world, which has given new connotations to human communication, profoundly changed the multiple relationships between people and between people and society, and embodied the freedom of human life.
(3) The infinity of communication time and space. In the real society, the history of individual communication constitutes the history of human communication. In essence, communication is an open system with universality. However, only when the productive forces develop generally and the regional individuals are replaced by the historic and experienced universal individuals in the world can communication become universal, which is the basis and condition for realizing the all-round and free development of human beings. The wide application of contemporary information technology makes it possible for people to communicate with each other.
From the perspective of individual communication, using network communication means, no matter where people are, as long as they have computers and the Internet, they can effectively transmit information in a short time, which is helpful for people to make quick judgments and correct decisions about what happened, which is an important embodiment of improving people's initiative. At the same time, with the help of information technology, the content expressed by the communication object has increasingly become the focus of the main concern. In the network, people can not only communicate and cooperate in the field of work, but also exchange ideas and hearts. This greatly enriches the spiritual and cultural exchanges between subjects, enhances the openness and sociality of exchanges, and promotes the subjects to constantly show themselves and develop themselves in more extensive exchanges and cooperation. From the perspective of global communication, the knowledge and technical means possessed by human beings have extended the scope of human activities to all corners of the world, effectively breaking the time and space barriers between countries and regions, and global economic, political and cultural exchanges have become a common phenomenon. With the leap of human social communication to global communication, the history of human communication has gradually changed into the history of world communication, and the all-round and free development of human beings has a broader platform.
(4) spreading equality of identity. Marx believes that the development of human beings is, to a certain extent, that "individual with personality" gradually replaces "accidental individual". "Individualized individual" means that social interaction adapts to individuals, and individuals have autonomy in society. [6] It emphasizes the equal and free development of people. The appearance of network communication has overcome the inequality of people's development opportunities, social classes and status caused by different division of labor in real society. Every individual in communication is an equal subject. Any realistic individual can create a variety of images and identities to enter and leave the virtual world according to his own wishes, and communicate with people of different social status, different cultural backgrounds and different ages and sexes, so as to realize one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many and many-to-one free communication. Moreover, because of the privacy of subject identity, every subject in the virtual world can freely express the truest understanding and views on a certain issue according to his own feelings and knowledge. The subject really has more freedom of speech and the right to participate in social affairs, and the individual's autonomy can be fully demonstrated, which creates the necessary conditions for the subject to better tap his own potential, publicize his personality and realize the free development of people and the formation of comprehensive personality.
Third, the transcendence of the subject's practical activities.
With the rapid development of information technology, the form of human practice presents brand-new characteristics. People not only devote themselves to changing and innovating an objective material world that is more suitable for human survival, but also consciously and purposefully create a virtual world that corresponds to the real world, permeates and transforms each other, creating conditions for people to better understand and transform the world, and the creativity of practice, especially its transcendence over the real world, is highlighted.
(1) Improve the production capacity of major materials. Production practice is the basis of social existence and development, and it is also the basis of all other practical activities of human beings. Nowadays, information technology and cultural knowledge have increasingly become the main driving force to promote economic and social development, and human production practice has gradually shifted from "material" and "physical" to "information" and "intelligence". "Information technology is not only an independent technology, in fact, it is a comprehensive high-tech with strong permeability and including many unit technologies." [7] Computer, Internet, microelectronics and other information technologies have been widely used in traditional manufacturing, finance and trade, transportation and communication, medical education, mass media and other fields. Great changes have taken place in the traditional mode of production, and the development of human productive forces has entered a new stage. The rapid development of information technology has led to the rapid rise of high-tech industries and emerging technology industrial clusters represented by network economy and information industry, and their economic benefits have far exceeded those of traditional industries such as finance, transportation and construction. Moreover, the convenience and efficiency of information technology make the new economic model represented by "e-commerce" favored by people, which greatly saves the cost and time of transactions and greatly improves the efficiency and level of economic activities. People are gradually liberated from heavy physical and mental work and have more free time to participate in education, culture, sports, entertainment and social activities. This is not only beneficial for people to gradually adapt to the rapid development trend of modern society, but also can effectively promote people's all-round free development and promote the effective promotion of subjectivity.
(B) enhanced the main spiritual and cultural production capacity. While creating material culture, human beings are also engaged in the production practice of creating spiritual culture. Spiritual and cultural production is a scientific and artistic social production practice, which is inseparable from the thinking and conscious process of the brain, showing the initiative and creativity of the practical subject in complex thinking operation. Spiritual and cultural production has its own independent fields, mainly including exploratory and creative activities in science, education and ideology. It not only needs all kinds of material materials that the human brain can process, but also needs the help of certain material means, and its activities must also be manifested as spiritual and cultural products that the society can enjoy.
In the field of science and technology, the basic form of spiritual and cultural production is scientific experiment. In human history, scientific experiment is an important way of scientific discovery and technological invention. Since the mid-20th century, the invention and application of microelectronics, space technology, new communication technology and new energy technology. They are the great achievements of spiritual and cultural production in the field of natural science, and clearly represent the new characteristics and trends of people's subjective practice forms in modern society, and the information age begins. In the field of humanities and social sciences, the application of information technology, especially virtual technology, subverts the traditional relationship between possibility and reality, and makes human creative activities have surreal characteristics. The achievements of humanities and social sciences created by human beings and the ways and means of engaging in research also show completely different characteristics from the past, which are manifested in ideological experiments, simulation experiments and model design in humanities and social sciences. Taking thinking experiment as an example, it is a pure and idealized experimental operation and control carried out by theorists in their minds. Through the perception and description of idealized objects, scientific facts and natural laws are discovered and obtained. Because of the high idealization of research problems, thought experiments are often impossible to realize in reality. However, the emergence of virtual technology makes this possibility a reality. Through virtual simulation technology, people can simulate the ideal experimental environment and conditions for exploration activities. At the same time, using virtual technology, people can also verify the results of a thinking experiment, so that the experiment originally carried out in thinking becomes a "realistic" experiment. The virtual practice activities that people are engaged in also get rid of the dependence on people's essential strength and the external natural world, transcend the limitations of entity and physical space, and have the self-transcendence and supernatural nature of the subject. (3) Developing virtual practice ability. Practice in the traditional sense always takes material things as the object and takes place in real time and space. In the information age, a kind of "two-way objectified perceptual activity of the subject in virtual space according to a certain purpose" appeared and developed [8]. It makes human practical activities gradually shift from a physical activity platform based on objects and energy to a virtual activity platform based on computers and networks. There are many kinds of virtual practice, which are embodied in two basic types: one is simulated and imitated, and the other is further exploratory and creative.
As a new practice form promoted by the information technology revolution, virtual practice can help people to understand the connotation of practice more deeply, especially the process and essence of the interaction between subject and object and the "two-way objectification", get rid of people's tendency to worship material production, worship objectivity and despise the initiative of subject, and fully prove that human practice is not a simple material transformation process between subject and object, at least including the energy between subject and object. At the same time, the emergence of virtual practice has also broken the strict distinction between traditional practice and cognition, practice and knowledge. The traditional practice theory often emphasizes the objectivity and direct reality of the practice process, and requires people's consciousness and ideas to act on objective objects with the help of people's body, environmental conditions and intermediary systems. What is only produced in thinking, consciousness and logic, but not really "objectively seen", belongs to the category of cognition. The appearance of virtual practice has revolutionized the scope of human practice, enriched the forms of social practice and greatly enhanced human subjectivity.
refer to
National war. Subjective philosophy [M]. Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 20 1 1.23.
[2] Kant made a triple division of human cognitive ability: perceptual, intellectual and rational. In Critique of Pure Reason (translated by Deng Xiaomang), he proposed: "The ability (receptivity) to obtain the appearance through the way we are stimulated by the object is called sensibility. Therefore, with the help of sensibility, the object is given to us, and only sensibility can provide us with intuition. But these intuitions are thought through intellectuality, and concepts are produced from intellectuality. " At the same time, he regards reason as the highest comprehensive understanding ability. "regard reason as the ability to obtain the unity of intellectual rules under the principle"; "All our knowledge begins with sensibility,
Then enter the intellectuality, and finally end in rationality. Nothing is higher than reason. "
[3] The virtual philosopher Michael Heim once said in his book "From Interface to Cyberspace-Metaphysics of Virtual Reality": "Cyberspace as a product belongs to Platonism." In Plato's view, the object pointed by the world of human experience is only the result of the outward projection of human own inherent thoughts and the product of the world of ideas. The cognitive process of human beings can only know the objects in the empirical world through the logical process of thinking and psychological memory. Therefore, cyberspace, as the product of human logical rationality, partly has the nature of Plato's idea.
[4] Marx and Engels. The Complete Works of Marx and Engels (Volume 9) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2009: 436
[5] In pre-Marxist philosophy, its dominant mode of thinking is a pure physical mode of thinking with the goal of pursuing ultimate existence, eternal ontology and absolute truth. This way of thinking explains the existing world from the presupposed essence, infers the existing things from the original origin, and pursues a single essence from the bipolar point of view. See: Zhang Mingcang. On virtual practice [M]. Kunming: Yunnan People's Publishing House, 2005: 50.
[6] Xu Meiling. Marx's communication theory and man's free and all-round development [J]. Economic and social development. 2009 (1)
[7] Kong Wei. Social mode of production from the perspective of information technology [D]. Beijing: Central Party School, 2004: 59
[8] Zhang Mingcang. Virtual practice [M]. Kunming Yunnan People's Publishing House 2005: 40