Digital Humanism

Upon successful completion of the course, students are expected to:

1. be familiar with key positions in the philosophy of technology, philosophical anthropology, political philosophy, and ethics, and be able to relate them to artificial intelligence, digitalisation, and biotechnology;
2. distinguish between and use with precision concepts such as autonomy, freedom, personhood, alterity, responsibility, finitude, and judgement;
3. analyse philosophically the effects of big data, algorithmic prediction, digital surveillance, and artificial intelligence on human self-understanding;
4. identify the anthropological and ethical presuppositions of digital technologies and assess different positions through argumentation;
5. interpret films and television series as philosophical thought experiments, reconstructing their conceptions of the human being, the machine, consciousness, memory, love, and death;
6. develop their own philosophical questions, formulate well-supported positions, and incorporate objections into their arguments;
7. read demanding theoretical texts attentively, reconstruct their arguments, and relate philosophical analysis to their own lives under the conditions of the digital age.

The course begins with the question of whether we remain the protagonists of our own lives or are gradually being transformed into data points within systems of algorithmic prediction. Digital Humanism is approached not as a specialised ethics of new technologies but as a philosophical project for preserving and re-establishing human autonomy under the conditions of the twenty-first century.

The course examines the relationship between the human being and technology, algorithmic governance, big data and surveillance, digital identity and the imagistic subject, human enhancement, and forms of technologically overcoming biological finitude.

Particular emphasis is placed on memory, forgetting, and digital death; digital clones and forms of posthumous presence; and the possibility of friendship, intimacy, and love with artificial systems.

The course also examines artificial creativity, writing, authenticity, work, and meaning within extended reality. It concludes with the ethical and political dimension of Digital Humanism, digital literacy, autonomy, and the care of the self as forms of the art of living.

Core Bibliography

Tasis, Theofanis, Πολιτικές του Βίου ΙΙ. Η επιμέλεια εαυτού στην εικονιστική κοινωνία, Armos Publications, Athens, 2017.
Tasis, Theofanis, Ψηφιακός Ανθρωπισμός. Εικονιστικό υποκείμενο και τεχνητή νοημοσύνη, Armos Publications, Athens, 2019.
Tasis, Theofanis, Φιλοσοφία της ανθρώπινης αναβάθμισης, Armos Publications, Athens, 2021.
Tasis, Theofanis, Ψηφιακός Ανθρωπισμός ΙΙ. Τεχνητή νοημοσύνη και τέχνη του βίου, Armos Publications, Athens, 2025.

Supplementary Bibliography

Anders, Günther, Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen, C.H. Beck.
Arendt, Hannah, Vita activa oder Vom tätigen Leben, Piper.
Bostrom, Nick, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Oxford University Press, 2014.
Bostrom, Nick, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, IdeaPress Publishing, 2024.
Coeckelbergh, Mark, AI Ethics, The MIT Press, 2020.
Crawford, Kate, Atlas of AI, Yale University Press, 2021.
Floridi, Luciano, The Fourth Revolution, Oxford University Press, 2014.
Floridi, Luciano, The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, 2023.
Han, Byung-Chul, Im Schwarm. Ansichten des Digitalen, Matthes & Seitz.
Heidegger, Martin, Die Frage nach der Technik, Klostermann.
Jonas, Hans, Das Prinzip Verantwortung, Suhrkamp.
Turkle, Sherry, Alone Together, Basic Books, 2011.
Werthner, Hannes et al. (eds.), Perspectives on Digital Humanism, Springer, 2022.
Zuboff, Shoshana, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, PublicAffairs, 2019.

Indicative Audiovisual Material

Ex Machina — Alex Garland
Minority Report — Steven Spielberg
After Yang — Kogonada
Her — Spike Jonze
Selected episodes of television series related to the themes of the course, such as Black Mirror and Real Humans.

The course functions as a philosophical workshop. Short introductory lectures present the central concepts and problems of each thematic unit and are followed by collective reading, commentary, and discussion of the texts. Selected passages are read aloud in class in order to cultivate attentive reading, an understanding of the structure of an argument, and precision in the use of concepts.

At the same time, films and episodes of television series are screened and treated not so much as illustrations of theory as independent philosophical thought experiments. Their analysis is connected to questions of personhood, freedom, surveillance, artificial consciousness, memory, love, loneliness, and death. Teaching is complemented by the discussion of particular cases, exercises in argumentation, and the application of philosophical concepts to phenomena of contemporary digital life.

The University’s online platform is used for the distribution of texts, announcements, and supplementary material. Digital libraries, films, television series, audiovisual material, digital creativity applications, and generative artificial intelligence systems are also used in teaching. At the same time, the use of these technologies constitutes an object of study in its own right. Students are asked to consider not only what digital systems are capable of doing, but also how they transform the ways in which we know, judge, create, relate to one another, and understand ourselves.

Assessment consists of three components:

1. Continuous preparation and active participation in class (25%)
   Students are assessed on their preparation of the assigned texts, substantive participation in discussions, their ability to formulate questions and objections, their contribution to the analysis of films and television episodes, and their capacity to respond to the arguments of others. Participation is not equated with frequency of speaking. Greater weight is given to attentive reading, precision, substantiation, and contribution to the shared exploration of a problem.
2. In-class presentation (25%)
   Students present, individually or in small groups, a text or topic connected to the central concerns of the course. The presentation should bring out the central question, principal thesis, and course of the argument, clarify the key concepts, and formulate a question capable of opening up discussion in the classroom. What is assessed is not rhetorical display or mere summary, but understanding, conceptual precision, clarity, and the capacity for philosophical dialogue.
3. Final examination (50%)
   The final examination covers the texts, concepts, films, television episodes, and problems discussed during the semester. Students are asked to reconstruct arguments, compare different positions, examine objections, and apply the concepts of the course to particular phenomena of digital life. The examination does not aim at the mere reproduction of information, but at judgement, argumentation, and the ability to relate theory to the problem under examination.

Assessment Criteria

Across all components of assessment, consideration is given to the understanding of texts, precision in the use of concepts, clarity and coherence of argumentation, the ability to formulate and address objections, the connection between philosophical theory and contemporary phenomena, and autonomy of judgement.