A purely data-driven human science has lost the thinking that defines it
Evidence
The Spirit is a conclusion, a syllogism, an integral whole in which component parts are meaningfully preserved (aufgehoben). The integral whole is a conclusive form. But without Spirit, the whole world falls apart into merely additive, unincorporated elements. Spirit constitutes the world’s interiority (Innerlichkeit) and composure (Sammlung): what gathers, or composes (versammelt), everything within itself. Theory is also conceptual – syllogistic – because it comprehends all the elements it includes. Ultimately, the ‘end of theory’ that Chris Anderson has trumpeted means taking leave of Spirit. Big Data makes Spirit – that is, thinking and thought – wither and die. Human science – Geisteswissenschaft – that is purely data-driven is, in fact, no longer human; it has no Geist, or Spirit. Totalized data-knowledge amounts to absolute ignorance: the absolute zero of Spirit. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 163
Categorization
- QUESTION: Is the pun Geisteswissenschaft/Geist substantively persuasive, or mere verbal wordplay? Want to test Han’s claim that data-driven humanities are literally no longer human.
- XREF: connects to: Social sciences may themselves be complicit in datafied hollowing out of the social — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 431; Eroded ‘master concepts’ lose their explanatory reach over social phenomena.; A science can rest on psychological data yet serve non-psychological aims — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 207 (+2 more)
Related
- A science can rest on psychological data yet serve non-psychological aims (similarity 0.80)
- Big Data logic rejects theory-driven hypothesis testing in favor of raw pattern extraction (similarity 0.79)
- Big Data’s correlational mode is displacing causal and spirit-driven knowledge (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Social sciences may themselves be complicit in datafied hollowing out of the social
#expands(0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 431 - Eroded ‘master concepts’ lose their explanatory reach over social phenomena.
#expands(0.80) - Good theory explains data but cannot remain at data’s level
#expands(0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2456 - A science can rest on psychological data yet serve non-psychological aims
#qualifies(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 207 - Machine-learning data operations have grown too complex for humans to comprehend or audit.
#expands(0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1546