Ontological crisis and epistemological reflection: cognitive practices of the precariat in conditions of fragmentation

Relevance. The article explores the cognitive practices of the precariat in the context of post-truth and digital transformation of society. The relevance of this study lies in the need for a philosophical understanding of how social vulnerability, unstable employment, and neoliberal discourses shape new ways of producing and legitimizing knowledge. In the situation of a crisis of trust in traditional institutions, truth acquires the form of temporary consensus, established within network communities and digital modes of communication.

The purpose of the study is to identify the epistemological features of the precariat’s cognitive practices and their relation to processes of social and cultural transformation.

Objectives. The research objectives include: analyzing the influence of social vulnerability and employment instability on the formation of cognitive strategies; examining the role of the digital environment and network communities in knowledge verification; defining the philosophical grounds for the shift from universalist models of truth to multiple and situational forms of its recognition.

Methodology. The study relies on an interdisciplinary approach, combining social philosophy, cognitive sociology, and epistemology. The theoretical framework includes M. Foucault’s concept of "regimes of truth", the works of V.A. Toshchenko and G. Standing, as well as contemporary research on post-truth philosophy and digital communication.

Results. It is shown that the cognitive practices of the precariat are fragmented and situational, based on horizontal forms of collective verification. Truth is understood as a process established through social trust and consensus within micro-communities. Fact-checking and critical thinking are not optional skills but necessary strategies of survival in conditions of informational instability.

Conclusions. The cognitive practices of the precariat represent a specific form of epistemological adaptation that undermines universalist models of truth and opens the space for multiple, flexible, and socially conditioned forms of knowledge.

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