Big Data: a loop or a challenge for human morality: mapping Russian tradition in philosophy and methodology

ABSTRACT Big Data is now a headliner in political, economical and cultural news. But the nature and moral features of Big Data are still not understood. This paper proposes a view of the Big Data as a new field for eternal philosophical discussions about the human subject and its key characteristic – communication. The main findings are in the tradition of Russian philosophical and methodological thought and experience: social and political practice and values, practical philosophy and decision-making, sense and narration. At the heart of the Russian vision is the human subject in the process of interiorizing a social system of values, flexible and changeable like actual Big Data. The Russian version of Marxism (Vaziulin et al.), Russian logic and methodology of knowledge (Bruchlinskii and Gryaznov), Russian version of phenomenology (Shpet) and semiotics (Vygotsky, Bahtin, Jacobson, Propp and others) gave us the keys to comprehend any complex system – and to keep it human. Within the framework of the Russian philosophical tradition, technical Big Data problems and achievements should be considered in the context of moral differences and search for morality.