Number and figure: Pythagorean tradition and metaphysics of digital reality

• Main Author: Alexander V. Podoprigora
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Law 2018-09-01
• Series: Антиномии
• Subjects: pythagorean tradition; digital reality; information; post-industrial society; neoplatonism; metaphysics; semantic space; electronic communications; networks; number; sign; binary logic

Within the framework of the information philosophy, the historical-philosophical approach and the synergetic paradigm, the phenomenon of “digital reality” is considered; its definition as a kind and stage of development of information reality is given. The genesis of this concept and its connection with the thousand-year Pythagorean tradition in European philosophy and culture based on the logic and dialectic of the number as a metaphysical entity is traced. The conclusion is made about the key significance of this philosophical tradition (in connection with Neoplatonism) as a special system of thought that determined the modern worldview and scientific paradigms, and contributed to the formation of a social model of a post-industrial interactive society generating a new type of phenomenal reality in the format of digital information technologies, institutes and platforms of electronic communications. In addition, the article considers the prerequisites for the birth of new forms of cognition and creativity, the “unpacking” of the content of the semantic continuum in the post-non-classical type of rationality, and the synergy of humanitarian and computer technologies.