The Metamorphoses of Concealment
Energy Expenditures from Hidden Sustenance to the Economy of Attention
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8135300 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Denys Sultanhaliiev (0000-0003-3384-4667, Independent Researcher, 01032 Kyiv, Ukraine, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 302 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel17030302 |
| OpenAlex | W7133184706 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This study traces the metamorphoses of concealment from Hesiod’s observation that “the gods keep the means of life concealed from human beings” to contemporary attention economies. In Hesiod’s pronouncement the event of concealment generates the dialectic of need and surplus, from which anthropological difference emerges, distinguishing the human from the animal and the divine. Divine concealment simultaneously creates humanity as seeker, sustenance as sought, and technics as necessity. Bataille’s “general economy” expands this framework from its theological to secular dimensions and from human labor to terrestrial life through solar energy, showing how technique generates discrete perception. Platonov’s revolutionary writings attempt to overcome nature’s dialectics through a quasi-theology of labor, yet the resulting socialist tragedy reveals a marked disproportion between technical development and subjective formation. Contemporary digital technologies transform concealment fundamentally: attention becomes liberated from searching for the hidden, only to be captured and commodified. Semiotic surplus manifests everywhere while material access remains restricted. The ancient matrix of concealment persists through digital transformations, assuming new forms while preserving its essential structure across radically different economic and technological conditions
Antecedent (behavioral psychology · Dialectic · Digital economy · Energy (signal processing · Humanity · Sustenance · Tragedy (event · Digital Education and Society · Digital Media and Philosophy · Humanities and Social Sciences
| Highly cited | No |
|---|