The Anthropology of a Digital Human: Research Methodology

DOI:10.33876/2311-0546/2025-2/173-186

Abstract

The concept of the "digital human" is increasingly becoming the subject of research in various social sciences and humanities. At the worldview level, philosophical, theological and other related disciplines are trying to develop a definition of this phenomenon within universal categories and laws. This approach gives an idea of the origin of man in the digital age, the forms of his being, possible transformations of the human essence in the future, etc.  General scientific and specific scientific levels, represented by sociology, psychology, pedagogy, anthropology, etc. and their sub-disciplines are developing a methodology for studying the "digital human" from a scientific point of view. As a result, new knowledge about a new human phenomenon is being produced, but it is divided into sectors: the philosophy of the digital human, the anthropology of the digital human, the sociology of the digital human, etc. Researchers of human digital transformation face the problem of choosing a research methodology and a categorical apparatus, since in the current context of interdisciplinary, interlevel, and intersectoral connections of the scientific knowledge, it is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate the subjects and fields of research. In the emerging paradigm of human research, which integrates diverse scientific knowledge, there is a lack of a strictly theoretical level at which the research methodology, categorical apparatus, laws and principles of the emergence, existence and development of the "digital human" should be developed. In this work, the author attempts to designate such a theoretical framework within anthropology.