Digital People: Philosophical and Legal Understanding

Relevance. The concept of "people" has a system-forming significance for the modern political structure of the world. This is due to the exclusive right of the people to self-determination. In other words, the people within the territory of residence are the only source of power, which allows them to organize states, establish rules of conduct (laws) on their territory. The development of technology has made the experience of interacting with the digital space a part of everyday human life. The gradual adoption of digital reality as the main pattern will form the need for users to equip the digital environment in the image and likeness of the physical world. With the development of intersubjective digital relations, in the presence of favorable conditions, the nature of relations between group members is qualitatively transformed, which can form such users' idea of their group as a digital people.

The purpose of the study is to explore the nature and prospects of digital people, i.e. highly organized groups of users who have established their own rules in a certain digital space and influence the virtual and physical world.

Objectives: conceptualization of the concept of “digital people”, analysis of the historical, philosophical and legal foundations of the digital people as a phenomenon; identifying scenarios for the development of intergroup relations among active users of the global information and telecommunications network.

Methodology. The research methodology includes an interdisciplinary and systematic approach, a method of historical analysis.

Results. An analysis of the historical, philosophical and legal foundations of the formation of many people into a people was carried out, which made it possible to conceptualize the concept of “digital people” as a more complex socio-political phenomenon, emerging at the intersection of the virtual and physical world.

Conclusions. A comprehensive philosophical and methodological analysis of the phenomenon of digital people made it possible to identify the source of power of such a group, which stems from the group itself, and therefore, at the stage of establishing its rules within the occupied digital space and/or establishing a digital state, such a group will not need approval and approval from the outside third parties.

1. Semenov Iu. I. Kak vozniklo chelovechestvo [How humanity arose]. 2nd ed. Moscow, Gosudarstvennaya publichnaya istoricheskaya biblioteka Rossii Publ., 2002. 790 p.

2. Platon. Gosudarstvo [State]. Moscow, Akademicheskii proekt Publ., 2015. 398 p.

3. Aristotel. Sochineniia [Works]; ed. by of A. I. Dovatura. Moscow, Mysl Publ., 1983. 830 p.

4. Tsitseron M. T. Dialogi: O gosudarstve. O zakonakh [Dialogues: About the State. About laws]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1966. 224 p.

5. Akvinski F. O korolevskoi vlasti k koroliu Kipra ili O pravlenii kniazei [On royal power to the king of Cyprus, or on the rule of princes]. Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie = Sociological Review, 2016, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 96–126.

6. Makiavelli N. Gosudar [The Sovereign.]. Moscow, Abris Publ., 2017. 302 p.

7. Gobbs T. Leviafan ili materiia forma i vlast gosudarstva tserkovnogo i grazhdanskogo [Leviathan or matter, form and power of the church and civil state]; ed. by A. Cheskis. Moscow, Sotsekgiz Publ., 1936. 503 p.

8. Russo Zh-Zh. Ob obshchestvennom dogovore ili Printsipy politicheskogo prava [On the social contract or Principles of political law]. Moscow, Sotsekgiz Publ., 1938. 124 p.

9. Marks K., Engels F. Sochineniia [Works]. 2nd ed. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo Publ., 1955, vol. 2. 668 p.

10. Veber M. Politika kak prizvanie i professiia [Politics as a calling and profession]. Moscow, RIPOL klassik Publ., 2020. 292 p.

11. Veber M. Khoziaistvo i obshchestvo ocherki ponimaiushchei sotsiologii [Economy and Society: Essays on Understanding Sociology]; ed. by L. G. Ionina. Moscow, Izdatel'skii dom Vysshei shkoly ekonomiki Publ., 2016, vol. 1. 445 p.

12. Safonov V. E. Vestfalskii traktat 1648 goda i ego vliianie na formirovanie printsipov mezhdunarodnogo prava [Westphalian Treaty of 1648 and its influence on the formation of the principles of international law]. Grazhdanin Vybory Vlast = Citizen. Elections. Power, 2021, no. 2, pp. 110–117.

13. Silina E. V. Teoriia suvereniteta Zhana Bodena kak politikofilosofskoe obosnovanie kontseptsii natsionalnykh gosudarstv [Bodin’s theory of sovereignty as a political and philosophical justification for the concept of national states]. Vestnik Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Seriia Pravo = Bulletin of Voronezh State University. Series: Law, 2021, no. 3(46), pp. 100–106.

14. Konstitutsii i zakonodatelnye akty burzhuaznykh gosudarstv XVII-XIX vv Angliia SSHA Frantsiia Italiia Germaniia. Sbornik dokumentov [Constitutions and legislative acts of bourgeois states of the 17th-19th centuries. England, USA, France, Italy, Germany: Collection of documents]; ed. by P. N. Galanza. Moscow, Gosyurizdat Publ., 1957. 587 p.

15. International Commission of Jurists, Events in East Pakistan, 1971: A legal Study. International Commission of Jurists, 1972. 98 p.

16. Final Report and Recommendations. Available at: https://burmalibrary.org>sites/burmalibrary.org/files/obl. (accessed 18.01.2024)

17. Averianova N. N. Konstitutsionnaia pravosubieektnost naroda kak obladatelia prava na zemliu [Constitutional legal personality of the "people" as the holder of the right to land]. Zhurnal rossiiskogo prava = Journal of Russian Law, 2017, no. 4 (244), pp. 38–44.

18. Khabrieva T. Ia. Doktrinalnoe znachenie rossiiskoi Konstitutsii [Doctrinal significance of the Russian Constitution]. Zhurnal rossiiskogo prava = Journal of Russian Law, 2009, no. 2, pp. 34–38.

19. Velieva D. S. Konstitutsionnaia pravosubieektnost narodov Rossiiskoi Federatsii v kontekste demokraticheskogo gosudarstva [Constitutional legal personality of the peoples of the Russian Federation in the context of a democratic state]. Konstitutsionnoe i munitsipalnoe parvo = Constitutional and Municipal law, 2015, no. 6, pp. 17–20.

20. Zorkin V. D. Pravovoe budushchee Rossii [Legal future of Russia]. Zhurnal rossiiskogo prava = Journal of Russian Law, 2011, is. 10(178), pp. 7–16.

21. Emtsov G. N. O politiko-pravovoi prirode grazhdanskikh voin [On the political and legal nature of civil wars]. Evraziiskii iuridicheskii zhurnal = Eurasian Legal Journal, 2014, no. 11 (78), pp. 214– 215.

22. Khart G. L. A. Poniatie prava [The concept of law]; ed. by E. V. Afonasina and S. V. Moiseeva. St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University Publ., 2007. 302 p.

23. Budanov V. G., Arshinov V. I. Bolshoi antropologicheskii perekhod metodologiia slozhnostnosetevogo myshleniia [Great anthropological transition: methodology of complex network thinking]. Kursk, Universitetskaia kniga Publ., 2022. 129 p.

24. Skuratov I. U., eds. Kategoriia "narod" v konstitutsionnom prave Rossii (evraziiskie traditsii i sovremennost) [The category "people" in the constitutional law of Russia (Eurasian traditions and modernity)]. Lex russica, 2017, no. 10 (131), pp. 9‒26.

25. Burgete Aiala M. R. Vzgliad na nachalo puti [look at the beginning of the path]. Voprosy filosofii = Questions of Philosophy, 2021, no. 11, pp. 43–46.

26. Fedorov O. S. Kharakteristika proektov sozdaniia novykh virtualnykh gosudarstv [Characteristics of projects for creating new virtual states]. Lokus liudi obshchestvo kultury smysly = Locus: People, Society, Cultures, Meanings, 2017, no. 2, pp. 129–135.

27. Arshinov V. I., Budanov V. G. Setevaia tsivilizatsiia i priroda Bolshogo antropologicheskogo perekhoda Izvestiia [Network civilization and the nature of the Great Anthropological Transition]. Izvestiya Yugo-Zapadnogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Ekonomika. Sotsiologiya. Menedzhment = Proceedings of the Southwest State University. Series: Economics, Sociology and Management, 2021, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 220–231.