Algorithmic Authority and the Divergence of Historical Thinking: Cognitive and Civilizational Consequences of a Structural Rupture

Document Type : Research/Original/Reqular Article

Authors

1 PhD Student, Department of Theoretical foundations of Islam, Faculty of Islamic Thought and Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of History, Civilization and Islamic Revolution, Faculty of Islamic Thought and Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jhic.2026.403646.654608

Abstract

In the digital age, "Algorithmic Authority" has emerged as the dominant mediating force governing knowledge ecosystems. This article analyzes a fundamental challenge: "The structural antagonism between the operational logic of algorithmic information systems and the cognitive requirements of "Historical Thinking." Defined as a critical competence essential for sound judgment, cognitive autonomy, and the continuity of civilizational awareness, historical thinking relies on principles such as contextual analysis, source verification, corroboration, and the comprehension of multi-causal complexity. This research tackles the central problem of how the inherent logics of algorithmic systems, including engagement optimization, personalization, computational opacity, and decontextualizing structures, systematically undermine and neutralize these cognitive principles. Adopting a conceptual-analytical approach and drawing upon a critical synthesis of interdisciplinary literature, this study elucidates this collision. The key finding asserts that the erosion of historical thinking does not simply reflect a deficit in individual media literacy. Instead, it results as a structural and inevitable consequence of the irreconcilable conflict between these two logics. By subverting individual autonomy in the public sphere, this erosion ultimately precipitates a crisis in "Civilizational Awareness," which underpins a critical collective memory.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

حسینی، پرویز (۱۳۹۳). آموزش: ملاحظاتی در باب آموزش تاریخ. رشد آموزش تاریخ، (۵۴)، ۱۲-۱۶.
https://www.noormags.ir/view/fa/articlepage/1022967
زرین‌کوب، عبدالحسین (۱۳۸۱). تاریخ در ترازو. چاپ هفتم. تهران: انتشارات امیرکبیر.
طباطبایی، سید جواد (۱۳۸۵). دیباچه‌ای بر نظریه انحطاط ایران. چاپ پنجم. تهران: نشر نگاه معاصر.
قریشی، سید جمال و مطلبی، حسین (۱۴۰۲). رهیافتی شناختی و بدن‌مند به خوانشگری کاغذی و دیجیتال. دوفصلنامه علمی متافیزیک، ۱۵(۲)، ۱۵-۳۱.
https://doi.org/10.22108/MPH.2023.133416.1411
کار، ای. اچ. (۱۳۷۸). تاریخ چیست؟ ترجمۀ حسن کامشاد. چاپ پنجم. تهران: انتشارات خوارزمی.
والش، دبلیو. اچ. (۱۳۶۳). مقدمه‌ای بر فلسفۀ تاریخ. ترجمه ضیاءالدین عالیی طباطبایی. تهران: انتشارات امیرکبیر.
 
Aimen, T. (2025). Cognitive freedom and legal accountability: Rethinking the EU AI act's theoretical approach to manipulative AI as unacceptable risk. Cambridge Forum on AI: Law and Governance. https://doi.org/10.1017/cfl.2025.4
Arendt, H. (1968). Between past and future: Eight exercises in political thought. Viking Press.
Askland, A. (2009). A wonderland of disposable facts. Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1076
Balkin, J. M. (2017). The three laws of robotics in the age of big data. Ohio State Law Journal, 78, 1217-1241.
Benkler, Y. (2019). The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom. Yale University Press.
Boyd, D. (2014). It's complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.
Breeden, E. C. (2023). Rediscovering Aleck: The forgotten origins and memorial history of a fictional slave sale advertisement. History & Memory, 35(۱), 3-40. https://doi.org/10.2979/ham.2023.a906479
Callinicos, A. (1989). Making history: Agency, structure, and change in social theory. Cornell University Press.
Carr, E. H. (1986). What is history? (2nd ed.). Penguin Books.
Caulfield, M. (2021). Web literacy for student fact-checkers. Pressbooks.
Colby, S. A. (2010). Contextualization and historical empathy: Seventh-graders' interpretations of primary documents. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 12(1/2), 69-85.
Collingwood, R. G. (1994). The idea of history (Revised ed.). Oxford University Press.
Egala, S. B. & Liang, D. (2023). Algorithm aversion to mobile clinical decision support among clinicians: A choice-based conjoint analysis. European Journal of Information Systems, 33(8), 1016-1032.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2023.2251927
Elgac, A. & Rayo, A. (2021). Fragmentation and information access. In S. Goldberg & M. Bergmann (Eds.). The nature of representation. Oxford University Press. 15-32. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198850670.003.0002
Froeyman, A. (2009). Concepts of causation in historiography. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 42(3),  116-128. https://doi.org/10.3200/HMTS.42.3.116-128
Gardiner, G. (2018). Corroboration. In S. Goldberg (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Testimony (pp. 178-196). Oxford University Press.
Gardiner, G. (2023). Corroboration. American Philosophical Quarterly, 60(2) 131-142. https://doi.org/10.5406/21521123.60.2.03
Gerdon, F., Janssen, M. & Klievink, B. (2022). Social impacts of algorithmic decision-making: A research agenda for the social sciences. Big Data & Society, 9(1) https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221089305
Ghasemaghaei, M. & Kordzadeh, N. (2024). Understanding how algorithmic injustice leads to making discriminatory decisions: An obedience to authority perspective. Information & Management, 61(4), 103921.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2024.103921
Gillespie, T. (2014). The relevance of algorithms. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, & K. A. Foot (Eds.). Media technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and society (pp. 167-194). MIT Press.
Han, B.-C. (2015). The transparency society. Translated by Butler, E. Stanford University Press.
Han, B.-C. (2017). Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and the new technologies of power. Translated by Butler, E. Verso Books.
Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology and other essays. Translated by Lovitt, W. Garland Publishing.
Huvila, I. (2016). Affective capitalism of knowing and the society of search engine. Aslib Journal of Information Management، 68(5), 566-588.
https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-11-2015-0178
Kilimova, L. V. & Cherkashin, M. D. (2025). Historical memory as a resource for consolidation of society: Problems and prospects of research. Proceedings of the Southwest State University. Series: Economics. Sociology. Management, 14(6), 237-250. https://doi.org/10.21869/2223-1552-2024-14-6-237-250
Kjeldsen, T. H. (2000). A contextualized historical analysis of the Kuhn–Tucker theorem in nonlinear programming: The impact of World War II. Historia Mathematica, 27(4) 331-361. https://doi.org/10.1006/HMAT.2000.2289
Kojiri, T., Misu, T., Okubo, F. & Ogawa, Y. (2018). Understanding support of causal relationship between events in historical learning. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems، 101-D(10), 2072-2081.
https://doi.org/10.1587/TRANSINF.2017EDP7297
Kolkman, D., van der Vlist, F. N. & van der Sloot, B. (2024). Justitia ex machina: The impact of an AI system on legal decision-making and discretionary authority. Big Data & Society, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241255101
Liu, H., Kautz, H. & Etzioni, O. (2019). Beyond State v Loomis: Artificial intelligence, government algorithmization and accountability. International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 27(2), 122-141. https://doi.org/10.1093/IJLIT/EAZ001
Lustig, C. & Nardi, B. (2015). Algorithmic authority: The case of Bitcoin. In 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 743-752). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2015.95
Lustig, C., Egelman, S. & Grote, G. (2016). Algorithmic authority: The ethics, politics, and economics of algorithms that interpret, decide, and manage. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-8). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2886426
Maar, A. (2016). Applying D. K. Lewis's counterfactual theory of causation to the philosophy of historiography. Journal of the Philosophy of History, 10(3).  349-369. https://doi.org/10.1163/18722636-12341349
Mitrović, B. (2015). Historical understanding and historical interpretation as contextualization. History and Theory, 54(3), 311-332. https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.10762
Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. NYU Press.
Ocasio, W., Pozner, J.-E. & Milner, D. (2016). History, society, and institutions: The role of collective memory in the emergence and evolution of societal logics. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), 676-699.
https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2014.0183
Olegário, D., de Farias, F. C. R. & Teixeira, T. S. (2025). Os reflexos das redes sociais na participação cidadã e na formação da opinião pública: Uma análise entre mobilização política e desinformação. Revista FT, 1. (in press). https://doi.org/10.69849/revistaft/fa10202506062150
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. Penguin Press.
Pasquale, F. (2015). The black box society: The secret algorithms that control money and information. Harvard University Press.
Poole, R. (2008). Memory, history and the claims of the past. Memory Studies, 1(2), 149-166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698007088383
Seixas, P. & Morton, T. (2013). The big six historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education.
Terranova, T. (2012). Attention, economy and the brain. Culture Machine, 13.
Tufekci, Z. (2018). Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. Yale University Press.
Turner, B. S. (2018). Review: Claudio Celis Bueno, The attention economy: Labour, time and power in cognitive capitalism. Theory, Culture & Society, 35(7-8), 331-337.
van der Eem, M., van Boxtel, C., & van Drie, J. (2024). Students evaluating the trustworthiness of historical sources and internet sources: A comparison. British Educational Research Journal, 50(4), 1625-1643. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.4095
VanSledright, B. A. (2014). Assessing historical thinking and understanding: Innovative designs for new standards. Routledge.
Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts: Charting the future of teaching the past. Temple University Press.
Wineburg, S., McGrew, S., Breakstone, J. & Ortega, T. (2016). Evaluating information: The cornerstone of civic online reasoning. Stanford History Education Group.
Wood, P. J. (2011). Understanding and evaluating historical sources in nursing history research. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 27(1), 25-33.
Yorgun, İ. (2024). The trap of present-day: Presentism as an issue and its boundaries in historical methodology. Tarih İncelemeleri Dergisi, 39(2), 643-664. https://doi.org/10.18513/egetid.1543287
Zhang, Y. (2024). Algorithm-driven identity politics: Role of social media in polarisation and mobilisation. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities, 9, 249-253. https://doi.org/10.54691/bcpssh.v9i.6853
Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. PublicAffairs.
 
 
Iranian Journal for the History of Islamic Civilization
Volume 58, Issue 2
(Autumn & Winter 2025 / 2026)
March 2026
Pages 200-222

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 12 October 2025
  • Revise Date: 02 January 2026
  • Accept Date: 27 January 2026

Share

How to cite

Statistics