ON THE BORDERLANDS OF UTOPIA AND IDEOLOGY – YUVAL NOAH HARARI THROUGH A CRITICAL LENS
ON THE BORDERLANDS OF UTOPIA AND IDEOLOGY – YUVAL NOAH HARARI THROUGH A CRITICAL LENS

Summary/Abstract: The world-famous popular science author, Yuval Noah Harari makes use of the technical language of the natural sciences, while engaging in social science. However, Harari’s work goes beyond the scope of anything like scientific description or scientific objectivity. Тhis article claims that Harari actually presents what is already represented by modernity itself as a cultural-historical meta-narrative. Differently put, Harari exemplifies a certain ideology. The goal of this article is an exercize in ideology critique, directed at the unsaid presuppositions and implicit philosophy of history underlying Harari’s works. The cult of technological utopia is as old as the development of modernity. The first significant work in this vein was a Renaissance utopia, namely Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis. Even today, there are ‘technognostic’, scientists and philosophers who assume that through technology, humans can become capable of achieving a more-than-human condition while overcoming the limits of human knowledge. The basic formula is simple: through the use of technology, humans can make themselves smarter, more virtuous, and even more moral. Authors such as Harari, who regards his own materialistic worldview as being practically synonymous with a ‘scientific’ and ‘objective’ view of the world, forget to reflect time and time again on thier own philosophical and ideological presuppositions, such as the contingent and historically overdetermined nature of their own worldview, as well as the problems and philosophical criticisms surrounding materialist epistemology.

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