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Against Anthropocentrism. Non-human Otherness and the Post-human Project

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Abstract

Technoscientific progress brings into question both anthropocentric epistemology and anthropocentric/humanistic ontology, which considers the human being as a self-constructing and self-sufficient entity. Even though, Darwinism recomposes the humanistic disjunction between reality and representation: by defining the human being as the result of an adaptive reflection, it reveals the idealistic character of post-Cartesian thought, which is the backbone of philosophical anthropocentrism. The non-human can be a dialogic entity if and only if it is considered not as “animal-by” but “animal-with”, that is, free to express its authenticity in terms of subjectivity, diversity and uniqueness. Whilst the post-human laboratory celebrates the power of human beings, the post-humanistic perspective emphasizes the conjugation with the non-human.

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  1. Centre Study for Posthumanistic Philosophy, Bologna, Italy

    Roberto Marchesini

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  1. Roberto Marchesini
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Correspondence to Roberto Marchesini.

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Marchesini, R. Against Anthropocentrism. Non-human Otherness and the Post-human Project. Nanoethics 9, 75–84 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-015-0220-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-015-0220-7

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