Of all the varieties of conceptual models of the information society, for the purposes of this study, it is important to include at least two aspects: first, characterizing the functioning of culture at the named stage of social development and, secondly, a new type of relations in the system of "individual - society". The first of them is determined by the mosaic of culture, the increasing role of virtualization, media saturation, changing patterns of behavior, loss of a clear hierarchy of values that actually leads to the disappearance of the notion of norm. Second - characterizes crisis of paternalistic society, increase in social mobility, changing priorities of society, recognition of human rights.
Based on the neoclassical model of development of moral culture in society today there is a synthesis of classical moral heritage with democratic values. The modern social and cultural conditions, on the one hand, traditional values take on new meaning, and on the other - changing mechanisms of regulation of behavior and moral status of the individual in society. This is not a restoration of the old moral culture, but its fundamentally new state coupled with the recognition of the moral autonomy of the individual, the implementation of human rights (Verbeek 368).
The regulatory function of morality in modern society appears as one of the leading. Nevertheless, there is a reason to believe that today there is the process of rethinking the role of morality in society and the individual. Its purpose is increasingly associated not with the need to bring human behavior in conformity with any standards, but the need for respect and recognition of self-worth and dignity of every individual. It is not possible to say that the morality code has exhausted its possibilities, but the moral values move to the fore. It is not all about the importance of reducing regulatory function execution by morality, but that only this accentuation of its role will not allow to isolate the properties of morality that make it indispensable in the life of society and the individual. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that the function of regulating human behavior more effectively fulfill other social mechanisms - primarily legal. It is no coincidence that in terms of transforming society, in which the role of the religious factor increases.
Morality is a form of culture of values directed at the establishment of self-worth individual, a special way of spiritual and practical development of the world, which is produced as a result of general requirements. In morality, there are recognized requirements that meet the deep needs of the individual - in philanthropy, in friendly relations, friendship, and love. Morality is not so much the norms that are always concrete, historical and create the illusion of relativity of moral imperatives, as an expression of humanity needs in human relations, the requirement to remain human in any situation. In extreme form of such significance, morality occurs when a person is in an emergency situation or border (Henwood, Parkhill and Pidgeon 667). The uniqueness of morality is in its unifying character, manifested in the possibility of common, joint activities of people with mutual respect for the moral autonomy of the person, who makes a free choice to live according to the laws of social life.
The development of modern information technology generates a number of moral issues to be discussed in the humanities. There is currently exacerbated the apparent contradiction in the moral life of society. On the one hand, the moral life of a person includes the need to address and implement the eternal problems in an attempt to answer which, their own human way of being is formed. The whole life of the individual is an attempt to answer the existential questions, and in this sense in every historical time, a person remains unchanged in its essence, as the essential tradition appears to be a human need. This is the meaning and purpose of morality: to crystallize from the set of human life intentions that need humanity. Being moral does not always mean playing by the rules. To live in good conscience support involves not only social norms, which often reflect the specific historical and ideological interests of certain groups, but primarily on moral absolutes. To a lesser extent, this need is justified rationally, but more often, it is associated with specific moral intuitions.
On the other hand, civilization shell of life inevitably affects personal ground of being and generates specific technologies of influence on the consciousness and behavior of the individual, contrary to the grounds of his moral autonomy. Along with this, there are phenomena that cause such moral problems that previously just could not appear. First, this is due to the emergence and development of new types of communications. Therefore, the designated contradiction acquires the following form: the inevitability of a modern person stands in front of the eternal problem of remaining a person that maybe relying on moral absolutes, but at the same time, there is destruction of this tradition that undermines the ability of its operations, and, accordingly, the foundations of personal life humanity.
The paradox lies in the fact that in the modern period of society development there is most fully embodied the possibility of moral choice, without which becomes problematic becoming autonomous moral subject. However, mosaic culture raises several interrelated trends that convert morality into play (Light, McGrath and Griffiths 101).
The first of these reflects the emergence of a multiplicity of patterns of behavior, which focuses on the individual. In terms of tradition, there are clearly defined ideals of life and the resulting patterns of behavior that are based on the unconditional authority of the lives of saints, heroes or loved ones, especially parents. In the modern culture, growing up for a person is free from the proposed ideals and can find a sample for himself in various sources. It can be the authorities in the nearest environment (in which parents do not always fall, and the examples are not always dominated by a positive direction), or patterns of behavior, derived from multiple media channels, television, and particularly the Internet. It is not necessary here to disclose the multi-vector nature of their proposed samples.
On the one hand, the possibility of moral choice is always a benefit. However, on the other hand, the problem is that the younger generation needs ideals, according to which they can line up certain vital strategy. In the case of unformed clear priorities or their lack in the life of a young man, he cannot always generate the need for the development of long-term plans, when there dominates pragmatics of one day: live for today, get maximum pleasure with minimum effort (Verbeek 13). Accordingly, there is no need in building long-term relationships with others, which can lead to alienation between relatives: friendship for the time spend together, the love that often comes down to sex, family to the first life difficulties, etc.
In the moral consciousness of the young person, there often coexist mutually exclusive ideas about life values. The questions about the priorities of young people are socially expected answers: on the top of the hierarchy - family, health, friends, good job, etc. Indeed, who will refuse from these good old values? But when we pass from abstract ideas to specific preferences, it turns out that even health is not such an absolute value, because to get a momentary pleasure, even if it is going to harm the person – it is more important than the long-term prospects to get any problem or even illness because of this (Boenink, Swierstra and Stemerding 115). Everyone is well aware of the harm from alcohol, drugs and other psychoactive substances, but enjoying the here and now is preferred. Good work is also ambivalent: there is recognized its importance and necessity, but the understanding that welfare is a result of daily work is giving way to the dreams of the good life, which will ensure success, profitable business, obtained immediately post-paid and so on.
The second trend is characterized by a lack in the modern culture of a clear hierarchy of moral values. Multiplicity of patterns, in fact, if not eliminates, but makes problematic the alignment of value hierarchy. In terms of traditional culture or monistic ideology, the system of morality is based on core values that enable a clear opposition between good and evil, progressive and reactionary, the sublime and the profane. This morality is teleological: everything that contributes to the declared goals is moral, what contradicts is immoral. In the context of a plural culture, based on tolerance and acceptance of the "sacred" right to choose, there gets moral justification, or at least not causes conviction, what has earlier been rejected. Examples of this are numerous, such as the scope of sexual morality: premarital sex, values of homosexual love, etc. Accordingly, there are grounds for approval of the fact that the priority is not even recognized the value of a particular social group, and those who are based only on a personal choice.
The third trend characterizes leveling, and sometimes disappearance of moral norm concepts. If again the analogy with traditional morality is made, then it is possible to record the presence of the underlying code, which formed the basis for the rest - corporate, professional, etc. The Ten Commandments, the moral code of the builder of communism and a number of other, are comparable with them in importance, clearly fixing the boundaries of permissible and impermissible. Hence, the main virtue of a person lies in the ability to perceive these norms and to the maximum extent to embody them in their behavioral practice. A significant aspect of the existence of such codes is their missionary orientation. Of course, one’s code is recognized as the only possible, correct, while others as the ones not corresponding to the true knowledge and must be refuted. Accordingly, those who have not yet grasped the true knowledge, needs introduction into it, as a rule, by the cross and the sword (Hancock 25).
The condition of values and ideological uncertainty leads to tension in the functioning of moral culture. In many ways, this situation is due to the lack of clearly defined priorities, not only in everyday consciousness, but in the system of state-ideological coordinates. On the one hand, it stimulates the personality’s production of its own moral position, capable of corresponding with spiritual efforts; on the other – the state of uncertainty raises absence of any moral position in many people, which is fraught with unpredictable consequences for both personal development and social results. Ideological vacuum situation leads to the possibility of its filling with a wide variety of value systems, not always differing by the positive direction. First, it concerns young people who, not having yet established clear moral convictions, are often able to perceive as modern innovations not the best behavior patterns.
Hence, the contradiction is formed between the content of the "official" morality and private life. The consequences of this gap can be different: conformism, the growing pessimism, moral indifference. Often it is possible to observe various forms of escapism, concentrating individual on privacy. Great possibilities of break with the world of everyday life today provides the virtual world, in which many people find a new reality, where it is possible to live whole new life (Yeh and Xu 116). Hiding behind a nickname in this life, people can be the ones they do not choose to be in reality. There develop new forms of relationship between people. Some phenomena are unique to modern culture. Internet becomes a kind of organizing principle that can be used in the implementation of both positive and negative purposes.
In the context of the powerful development of different kinds of technology, it is possible to raise the question of existence of an autonomous morality. On the one hand, there is improvement of the quality of life and increase in the level of comfort. However, on the other - increasing ability to control a person, both in a behavioral aspect and in terms of the manipulation of consciousness.
Refusal of the postnonclassical ethics from traditional basic characteristics of being in a culture of morality leads to the eventual abolition of morality itself. However, many of the realities of life characterize such danger of relativization of moral values. The so-called phenomenon of September 11, the events in Beslan in 2006, the danger of terrorist acts carried out at almost any time and any place, creates the need for finding the fundamental moral values (Stemerding 1135). There are two interrelated trends in contemporary culture: on the one hand, the dominance of post-metaphysical thinking and growing out of it outrageous fashion for all kinds of permissive morality to date can be considered as passed stage; on the other - the return of the modern world to traditional rigoristic Ethics Code ща moral consciousness is hardly possible. In other words, postnonclassical culture, on the one hand, destroyed the conditions of operation of the traditional morality, and ethics demands a new type - the ethics of creativity, focused on internal self-alignment of the individual himself. On the other hand, postmodern culture - by forming post-metaphysical thinking - denied that axiological context, in which there only can be realized such a moral system as the ethics of values, such as ethics of creativity.
Reflecting on the dynamics of culture, it is possible to conclude that in the course of its development, it took two big steps, which can be called teocentrical and naturocentrical. In the modern period, there matures new intellectual paradigm that meets the aspirations of the coming of the next transition in the history of world culture - a culture period of anthropocentric type. Largely, formation of a new type of culture promotes the transition from different sociocultural forces confrontation to dialogue.
Oddly enough, in relation to moral culture, it is possible to speak of the need for its anthropologization as in traditional morality and morality of largely industrial society people simply dropped out of purposeful reason of these cultures. The basis of modern society, if it claims to be civilized, should be the recognition of unconditional worth of each person, regardless of the kind social characteristics, such as place of residence, ethnicity or party affiliation, religion, etc.
Works Cited
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Hancock, Peter A. Mind, machine and morality: toward a philosophy of human-technology symbiosis. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009.
Henwood, Karen L., Karen Anne Parkhill, and Nick F. Pidgeon. "Science, technology and risk perception: From gender differences to the effects made by gender." Equal Opportunities International 27.8 (2008): 662-676.
Light, Ben, Kathy McGrath, and Marie Griffiths. "More than just friends? Facebook, disclosive ethics and the morality of technology." (2008).
Stemerding, Dirk, Tsjalling Swierstra, and Marianne Boenink. "Exploring the interaction between technology and morality in the field of genetic susceptibility testing: A scenario study." Futures 42.10 (2010): 1133-1145.
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Yeh, Quey-Jen, and Xiaojun Xu. "The effect of Confucian work ethics on learning about science and technology knowledge and morality." Journal of business ethics 95.1 (2010): 111-128.
