EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE MODELING OF HYPERTEXT

Abstract

This article explores hypertext as a distinctive form of organizing knowledge and thinking, emerging within the context of digital culture and post-nonclassical epistemology. The study focuses on the epistemological and cognitive modeling of hypertext, understood as a nonlinear, decentralized, and multidimensional structure that reflects the characteristics of contemporary cognition and cultural practices. It is shown that hypertext not only transforms traditional conceptions of text but also shapes new forms of subjectivity, perception, and understanding. Hypertext is viewed as an epistemological metaphor, representing the transition from linear logic of knowledge to networked, associative, and fragmentary thinking, and also as a tool for generating synergistic thinking — a pluralistic, open, and context-dependent process of meaning-making. The article highlights the philosophical and cultural foundations of the hypertext concept — from the ideas of Wittgenstein, Foucault, and Derrida to the works of Ted Nelson and Tim Berners-Lee. In conclusion, it discusses the implications of hypertextualization of knowledge for education, science, communication, and digital subjectivity.