The Crisis of Human Agency in the Era of Algorithmic Nudging and University Democratic Citizenship Education: Focusing on Hebrew Holistic Anthropology

ABSTRACT

[Objective] The purpose of this study is to examine how AI-driven algorithmic nudges erode democratic deliberation by exploiting users’ cognitive biases, and to introduce Hebrew holistic anthropology as an ontological foundation for restoring university students’ agency in the age of AI. [Contents] To accomplish this purpose, this study analyzes the threefold crisis caused by algorithmic nudges-instrumentalization of existence, loss of moral autonomy, and erosion of rational deliberation-and counters each through the imago Dei, the tree of knowledge, and disputation with Yahweh, which ground relational dignity, responsible free will, and deliberative capacity. On this basis, it proposes a “holistic literacy” and “disputation community” model for university general education. [Conclusions] Based on the results of the study, algorithmic nudges reduce humans to data and bypass reflective thinking, whereas Hebrew holistic anthropology provides an ontological basis for resistance. Accordingly, democratic citizenship education in the AI era must move beyond digital skills training toward a humanities-theology-based approach cultivating critical deliberation and public responsibility.