FROM LIBERALISM TO DIGITAL HUMANISM: FREEDOM IN THE DIMENSION OF A NEW POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

The article explores the political aspects of the concept of “freedom” in the conditions of the modern globalized world, characterized by the rapid development of digital techno- logies, information wars, hybrid conflicts and threats of mass surveillance. It is noted that digital platforms, on the one hand, open up new opportunities for the realization of individual freedom, and on the other hand, create risks of its restriction through algorithmic management, manipulation of consciousness and loss of privacy. Special attention is paid to the issue of collective freedom in the context of global crises – ecological, epidemiological, military – and challenges associated with the need to balance security and freedom. The authors argue that the traditional liberal model of freedom, formed in the Modern era, is losing relevance in modern conditions and requires conceptual renewal. Based on the philosophy of dialogue, directions for rethinking freedom as a dynamic, relational and ethical-political phenomenon are proposed, which requires new mechanisms of protection in the digital age. Nowadays, freedom appears as a dynamic, contextual value that requires constant balancing between rights and obligations, individual aspirations and collective responsibility. This is especially clearly manifested in conditions of war – for example, in Ukraine, which is simultaneously fighting for its physical security and for the right to remain a democratic state that guarantees freedom to its citizens. In such a context, freedom ceases to be only a philosophical concept and acquires existential significance: it becomes a question of survival, dignity, historical continuity. Therefore, individual freedom is able to exist in a community of free people who seek the opportunity to be directly involved in each other. Outside of politics, as the art of living together, the existence of freedom seems rather illusory.