Human Flourishing in the Age of Digital Capitalism - by Andrius Bielskis (Hardcover)

About the Book

As the nature of work is rapidly changing with advances in technologies of automation, the essays in this volume examine the ethics and politics of meaningful labour under digital capitalism.

Book Synopsis

With a distinctive theoretical framework combining Aristotle, Marx, and Alasdair MacIntyre, the essays in this volume ask how forms of artificial intelligence and technologies of automation in digital capitalism affect human flourishing, and what meaningful work looks like under these conditions.

As technology advances, how do we decide what activities should be automated? Is the end of work through automation actually desirable? If a good life is the life of activity employing our rational, imaginative, and creative powers, what does it mean to say that future societies will be post-work societies? Rather than simply embracing the possibilities of automation to eliminate work, this collection considers that meaningful work is integral to the good life.

Human Flourishing in the Age of Digital Capitalism contains eight essays from scholars in the UK, Europe and USA, reflecting on the philosophical and ethical dimensions of technology and political theory. Contributions cover topics such as algorithmic management, the feared 'superintelligence' of machines, the concept of good work, and the alienating consequences of technology for workers. This timely and novel intervention in the automation debate will be of interest to anyone considering new technologies from the perspective of normative ethics and the critique of political economy.

Review Quotes

Aristotle and Marx might seem like unlikely bedfellows, but this volume proves otherwise. It demonstrates that questions of human flourishing and human labour must be asked together, as capital relentlessly pursues thoughtless applications of AI-powered automation motivated solely by the capture of value. A surprising collection of thought-provoking essays which provides a novel framework for thinking about political economy and the good life.

This volume is unique in looking at the burgeoning field of AI ethics through an Aristotelian-cum-Marxist lens. In doing so, it reflects the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, its main contemporary inspiration. Given the dominance of liberal and economistic assumptions in the literature, this volume is to be welcomed for challenging such assumptions head-on

About the Author

Andrius Bielskis is Director of the Centre for Aristotelian Studies and Critical Theory at Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania, and Professor of Philosophy at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.