The Society of the Like

Hegel, Veblen and the Negative Ontology of Recognition in Cyberspace

Bibliographic Data

ID22434438
AuthorsAlejandro Pérez y Soto Domínguez (0000-0001-5190-5297, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, corresponding author), Héctor Fernando Rueda-Rodríguez (Universidad del Valle), Héctor Fernando Rueda Rodríguez (0000-0001-7998-0328, Universidad Santiago de Cali), Héctor Alberto Cortez-Valencia (Universidad Santiago de Cali)
Year2026
Volume11
Issue4
Pages117
Publication date2026-07-11
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2409-9287 • E-ISSN: 2409-9287
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/philosophies11040117
OpenAlexW7168181152
LanguageEN
References cited18

This article advances a philosophical interpretation of contemporary cyberspace through the categories of recognition, negativity and invidious distinction. Existing accounts attribute digital self-exploitation to surveillance, economic coercion or behavioural design; these readings describe mechanisms without identifying the ontological operation they presuppose. The paper argues that the like is not a reduced form of recognition but its structural contrary, and that the same cancellation operates across the broader architecture of commerce in cyberspace. Drawing on Hegel’s analysis of Anerkennung as a negative operation requiring risk and determinate negation, and on Veblen’s theory of invidious distinction as the preservation of that negativity within commercial society, the article shows that algorithmic cyberspace cancels the three conditions under which recognition is ontologically possible—the risk of non-recognition, determination through scarcity, and the reciprocity of the encounter. What the like offers is pure positivity, and that positivity produces the very exhaustion it claims to soothe. Platform fatigue is therefore structural: the consequence of an institution that monetises recognition demands it cannot satisfy. The paper concludes by situating the diagnosis within the Kantian question of autonomy and the Luddite prehistory of technical resistance to the reorganisation of recognition.

Cyberspace · Deception · Negativity effect · Ontology · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Digital Media and Philosophy · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI