CONTEMPORARY POST-HUMANISM: TECHNOLOGICAL AND HUMAN SINGULARITY.

Elena Colombetti

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Posthumanism entails the idea of transcendence of the human being achieved through technology. The article begins by distinguishing perfection and change (or growth). It also attempts to show the anthropological premises of posthumanism itself and suggests that we can identify two roots: the liberal humanistic subject (autonomous and unrelated that simply realizes herself/himself through her/his own project) and the interpretation of thought as a computable process. Starting from these premises, many authors call for the loosening of the clear boundaries of one’s own subject in favour of blending with other beings. According to these theories, we should become post-human: if the human being is thought and thought is a computable process, whatever is able to process information broader and faster is better than the actual human being and has to be considered as the way towards the real completeness of the human being itself. The paper endeavours to discuss the adequacy of these premises highlighting the structural dependency of the human being, the role of the human body, the difference between thought and a computational process, the singularity of some useless and unexpected human acts. It also puts forward the need for axiological criteria to define growth as perfectionism.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)367-377
Number of pages11
JournalCUADERNOS DE BIOÉTICA
Volume2014
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Perfeccionamiento
  • autonomy
  • autonomía
  • body
  • cuerpo
  • enhancement
  • humanism
  • humanismo
  • identidad
  • identity
  • posthumanism
  • posthumanismo

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