Big Data as “Practical Ontology”: The Ontotheology Underlying the Interpretation of Reality as Data

Abstract

The article discusses the emergence of a “practical ontology” in some of the most triumphalist discourses on Big Data. Such an interpretation can be drawn from the Heideggerian critique of ontotheology, a term he used as an equivalent to Western metaphysics. Following his perspective, the article argues that the reduction of reality to data, as in many Big Data discourses, means putting functionality as the fundamental aspect of beings, hence – the idea of a practical ontology. The Heideggerian critique of ontotheology, however, not only makes the ontological core of Big Data’s practical discourses more transparent but also points out the theoretical limits of that ontology and, furthermore, of most discourses around Big Data. It could be said that eventually Big Data’s practical ontology conceals the very moment of unconcealment of beings as data, undermining a proper comprehension of its object of analysis – the data.