deconstruction and excision in philosophical posthumanism
Journal of Evolution and Technology 21 (1):27 - 36 (2010)
| Abstract | I distinguish the ethics of transhumanism from a related metaphysical position which I refer to as “speculative posthumanism.” Speculative posthumanism holds that posthumans might be radically non-human and thus unintelligible in human terms. I claim that this transcendence can be viewed as analogous to that of the thing-in-itself in Kantian and post-Kantian European philosophy. This schema implies an impasse for transhumanism because, while the radically non-human or posthuman would elude evaluation according to transhumanist principles such as personal autonomy or liberal freedom, it is morally unacceptable for transhumanists to discount the possible outcomes of their favoured policies. I then consider whether the insights of critical posthumanists, who employ a cyborg perspective on human-technology couplings, can dissolve this impasse by “deconstructing” the opposition between the human and its prospective posthuman successors. By exhibiting its logical basis in the postructuralist philosophies of Derrida and Deleuze, I show that the cyborg perspective is consistent with both cyborg humanism and a modified speculative posthumanism. This modified account treats the alterity of the posthuman as a historically emergent feature of human and posthuman multiplicities that must be understood through their technical or imaginative synthesis, not in relation to a transcendental conception of the human. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Posthumanism Transhumanism Continental Philosophy Metaphysics | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesChristopher Peterson (2011). The Posthumanism to Come. Angelaki 16 (2):127 - 141.
Mark Peter Jones (1996). Posthuman Agency: Between Theoretical Traditions. Sociological Theory 14 (3):290-309.
Jan Krasicki (2002). Posthumanism and Russian Religious Thought. Studies in East European Thought 54 (1-2):125-143.
Michael E. Zimmerman (2011). Last Man or Overman? Transhuman Appropriations of a Nietzschean Theme. Hedgehog Review 13 (2):31-44.
J. P. Bishop (2010). Transhumanism, Metaphysics, and the Posthuman God. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (6):700-720.
Fabrice Jotterand (2010). Human Dignity and Transhumanism: Do Anthro-Technological Devices Have Moral Status? American Journal of Bioethics 10 (7):45-52.
Nick Bostrom (2005). In Defense of Posthuman Dignity. Bioethics 19 (3):202–214.
Bradley Onishi (2011). Information, Bodies, and Heidegger: Tracing Visions of the Posthuman. Sophia 50 (1):101-112.
J. Hughes (2010). Contradictions From the Enlightenment Roots of Transhumanism. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (6):622-640.
R. P. Doede (2008). Polanyi in the Face of Transhumanism. Tradition and Discovery 35 (1):33-45.
Leon Culbertson (2011). Sartre on Human Nature: Humanness, Transhumanism and Performance-Enhancement. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 5 (3):231 - 244.
Candice Salyers (2011). What Is Posthumanism? Environmental Philosophy 8 (1):134-137.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-01-09Total downloads20 ( #61,589 of 549,558 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,397 of 549,558 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
