Is Digitalization Forcing Older Thinkers to Rescue Their Own Theories?

This essay examines how the information revolution and digital transformation challenge the explanatory power and anthropocentric foundations of major twentieth-century philosophical and sociological theories. Drawing on Habermas, Searle, Singer, Rifkin, Beck, and Giddens, it explores how developments in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and climate change prompt theoretical modification or place established conceptual distinctions under pressure. Its central claim is that theories can become obsolete without being falsified: they may continue to explain the phenomena of their formative periods while accounting for a diminishing proportion of an expanding world of phenomena. The essay conceptualizes this process as a relative contraction of explanatory scope and an erosion of explanatory power. It further argues that modifications intended to preserve a theory’s relevance may compromise its conceptual integrity and identity, leaving revised theories to serve as provisional epistemic bridges between inherited frameworks and emerging digital realities.