What Society for Our Posthuman Future? A Task for the Serious Transhumanist Thinker
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62229/Keywords:
Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz, transhumanism, society, utopianism, critiqueAbstract
What is still lacking in the expanding research field of transhumanism is a serious investigation of the social existence and its role in the shaping of the future. Taking Sorgner’s recent book, We have always been cyborgs, as a guide, the paper investigates the roots and possible reasons of the societal blindness that seems to be so prevalent in the transhumanist community. The analysis shows that the principled positions that are by and large accepted in the community, notably Sorgner’s alethic and ethical nihilism, which inform the political-philosophical liberalism of most if not all of its members are untenable without an underlying historical reasoning that sees the evolution of the societies as virtually complete. Since this historical argument is always nonfactual, it results that the question about the future society can and must be addressed if transhumanism is to keep with its philosophical programme.References
Anders, Günther (2002). Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen. Band II: Über die Zerstörung des Lebens im Zeitalter der dritten industriellen Revolution. München: C. H. Beck.
Buck-Morss, Susan (1977). The Origin of Negative Dialectics: Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt Institute. New York: Free Press.
Dries, Christian (2014). Die Welt als Vernichtungslager: Eine kritische Theorie der Moderne im Anschluss an Günther Anders, Hannah Arendt und Hans Jonas. transcript Verlag.
Foucault, Michel (1986). "Kant on Enlightenment and Revolution." Translated by C. Gordon. Economy and Society 15 (1): 88–96.
———. (1995). Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books.
Fukuyama, Francis (2006). The End of History and the Last Man. Reissue edition. New York: Free Press.
Ghiman, Lorin (2021). "Necessary Transgressions and Possible Limitations of the Human Condition. A Plea for a Critical, Posthumanist Approach to Transhumanist Issues." Annals of the University of Bucharest - Philosophy Series 69 (2): 103–13.
Gray, John (1986). Liberalism. 2nd edition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Honneth, Axel, Thomas McCarthy, Claus Offe, and Albrecht Wellmer (eds.) (1992). Philosophical Interventions in the Unfinished Project of Enlightenment. MIT Press.
Hughes, James J. (2010). "Contradictions from the Enlightenment Roots of Transhumanism." Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (6): 622–40.
———. (2012). "The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626–2030." Zygon® 47 (4): 757–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2012. 01289.x.
Israel, Jonathan (2011). A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy. 8.7.2011 edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lu, Mathew (2013). "Getting Serious about Seriousness: On the Meaning of Spoudaios in Aristotle's Ethics." Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 87 (July): 285–93. https://doi.org/10.5840/acpaproc201441412.
Passerin D'Entreves, Maurizio (1996). "Critique and Enlightenment. Michel Foucault on 'Was ist Aufklärung?'" Barcelona.
Saage, Richard (2013). "New Man in Utopian and Transhumanist Perspective." European Journal of Futures Research 1 (1): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40309-013-0014-5.
Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz (2022). We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism. 1st ed. Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv21wj5ng.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Annals of the University of Bucharest. Phylosophy Series

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.