Posthumanism: a Danger, Opportunity and Challenge
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/SPI.2017.1.005Keywords
posthumanism, humanism, person, education, freedomAbstract
A tendency towards posthumanism is on the increase today. The author of the article aims to analyse the issue in order to provide a critical interpretation, offering a short description of the phenomenon, a key concept (freedom) useful in addressing the problem, and a concrete perspective in order to face up to and accept its challenge. In other words: the author of the contribution rejects posthumanism because it is in opposition to humanism and suggests embracing neohumanism as the ethical improvement of human behaviour related principally to education, and not simply to technical progress. The main principle is that human beings are ends, not means of all activities aiming at enhancement of human capacities.
References
Aristotle, Politics, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1946.
Fukuyama F., Our Posthumanistic Future, Profile Books, London 2002.
Gregory of Nyssa, “On the Making of Man”, XVI, transl. H.A. Wilson, in: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series II, vol. 5, ed. P. Schaff, H. Wace, The Christian Literature Company, Oxford – London 1893, pp. 387–427.
Haraway D., “A Cyborg Manifesto”, in: D. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: the Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, New York 1991.
Herbrechter S., Posthumanism, Bloomsbury, London 2013.
MacCormack P., Posthuman Ethics, Ashgate, London 2012.
Marchesini, R., “Alterity and the Non-Human”, Humanimalia 2010, no. 2, pp. 93–94.
Marchesini R., Tonutti S., Manuale di zooantropologia, Meltemi, Roma 2007.
Mari G., Educare la persona, La Scuola, Brescia 2013.
Miah A., “Posthumanism: A Critical History”, in: Medical Enhancements and Posthumanity, eds. B. Gordijn, R. Chadwick, Routledge, New York 2007, pp. 71–94.
Nayar P.K., Posthumanism, Polity Press, Cambridge 2013.
New American Bible Revised Edition, Catholic World Press/World Bible Publishers (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 1970), 2011. Available at: <http://www.usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm>.
Nietzsche F., Thus Spoke Zarathustra, transl. A. del Caro, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006.
Posthumanism, ed. N. Badmington, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2000.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Edizioni Studio Domenicano, Bologna. [See also: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, <http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/cache/summa.pdf>].
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles, Utet, Torino 1975.
Parmenides, The Fragments of Parmenides, ed. A.H. Coxon, Parmenides Publishing, Las Vegas – Zurich – Athens 2009.
Pepperell R., The Posthuman Condition, Intellect Books, Bristol 2003.
Wolfe C., What is Posthumanism?, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 2010.
Xenophon, Memorabilia, II, 1, in: Xenophon, Memorabilia. Oeconomicus. Symposium. Apology, transl. E.C. Marchant, O.J. Todd, ed. J. Henderson, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) – London 2013, pp. 109–113.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
By submitting an article, the author declares that:
they are the author of the article (hereinafter referred to as the Work) and:
- is entitled to exclusive and unlimited copyright to the Work,
- is entitled to dispose of the copyrights to the Work.
The Author grants the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow a free, non-exclusive, territorially unlimited license to use the Work in the following fields of exploitation:
- publishing the Work in paper, digital or magnetic form;
- multiplying the work by any method, without limiting the number of editions or copies;
- distribution of the work and its copies in any form, including marketing, sales, lending, and lease;
- placing the work in a computer memory;
- distribution of the work in information networks, including the Internet;
- public performance, exhibition, display, reproduction, broadcasting and re-broadcasting, as well as making the Work available to the public in such a manner that everyone could have access to it at a time and place chosen by themselves;
- within the scope of dependent rights to the Work, covering, in particular, the right to make necessary changes to the Work, resulting from editorial and methodical preparation, as well as to make translations of the Work into other languages.
The license right shall be transferred the moment of transfer of the Work to the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow. The Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow is entitled to grant sub-licenses to the Work in terms of the right granted. The license shall be limited in time for a period of 15 years from the date it is granted.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 533
Number of citations: 0
