Algorithms and Subjectivity: The Subversion of Critical Knowledge

In this thought-provoking volume, Eran Fisher interrogates the relationship between algorithms as epistemic devices and modern notions of subjectivity.

Over the past few decades, as the instrumentalization of algorithms has created knowledge that informs our decisions, preferences, tastes, and actions, and the very sense of who we are, they have also undercut, and arguably undermined, the Enlightenment-era ideal of the subject. Fisher finds that as algorithms enable a reality in which knowledge is created by circumventing the participation of the self, they also challenge contemporary notions of subjectivity.

Through four case-studies, this book provides an empirical and theoretical investigation of this transformation, analyzing how algorithmic knowledge differs from the ideas of critical knowledge which emerged during modernity - Fisher argues that algorithms create a new type of knowledge, which in turn changes our fundamental sense of self and our concept of subjectivity.

This book will make a timely contribution to the social study of algorithms and will prove especially valuable for scholars working at the intersections of media and communication studies, internet studies, information studies, the sociology of technology, the philosophy of technology, and science and technology studies.

在這本引人深思的著作中，Eran Fisher探討了演算法作為認識裝置與現代主體性觀念之間的關係。

在過去幾十年中，隨著演算法的工具化，它們所創造的知識影響著我們的決策、偏好、品味和行為，甚至影響我們對自我的認知，同時也削弱了啟蒙時代對主體性的理想。Fisher發現，當演算法使得知識的創造不再需要自我的參與時，它們也挑戰了當代對主體性的觀念。

通過四個案例研究，本書提供了對這一轉變的實證和理論研究，分析了演算法知識與現代性中出現的批判性知識觀念的不同之處 - Fisher認為演算法創造了一種新型知識，這反過來改變了我們對自我的基本認知和主體性的概念。

這本書將對演算法的社會研究做出及時的貢獻，對於從事媒體與傳播研究、互聯網研究、信息研究、技術社會學、技術哲學以及科學與技術研究的學者尤其有價值。

Eran Fisher is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Political Science, and Communication at the Open University of Israel. He studies the link between digital media technology and society. His books include Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age (2010), Internet and Emotions (2014; co-edited with Tova Benski), and Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age (2015; co-edited with Christian Fuchs).

伊蘭·費舍爾（Eran Fisher）是以色列開放大學社會學、政治科學和傳播學系的副教授。他研究數位媒體技術與社會之間的聯繫。他的著作包括《數位時代的媒體與新資本主義》（2010年）、《網路與情感》（2014年；與托娃·本斯基共同編輯）以及《重新思考數位時代的價值與勞動》（2015年；與克里斯蒂安·福克斯共同編輯）。