Abstract
It is evident that the Postmodern ethos is characterized by a strong anti-essentialist and deconstructive paradigm which – supplemented by the rise of techno-scientific movements and innovations – has created an environment conducive to redefining the concept of Human Nature. Most of the elements and functions within the human being are now traversed by diverse technologies, as it is the case of the human body, that has become the object of diverse transhuman philosophies and progressivist ideologies. The progressive human-machine fusion has increased the concern regarding human enhancement technologies and their effect in the idea and meaning of the human being. The technical sphere of mechanized reproduction extends to all areas of human life, freeing things from their aura, their idea, their concept, their reference, their origin and their end, emerging a process of reproduction to infinity, which is, in essence, the genesis of the several crisis of significance that we witness in the current postmodern period. This paper analyzes the transition from Modern (anthropocentric) humanism to Postmodern posthumanism and demonstrates that this mutation can only be possible with the dehumanization of the Human Being – not its enhancement – bringing forth the challenge of understanding and defining Human Nature in the age of technical reproduction.
Presenters
Mane TatulyanStudent, Masters in Applied Philosphy, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Capital Federal, Argentina
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Modernity, Postmodernity, Essentialism, Transhumanism, Posthumanism, Human Nature
