Humanism, Transhumanism and Posthumanism

Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences,, 2022

Posthumanism and transhumanism are often identified. However, modern researchers indicate the fundamental difference between these intellectual schools. The fundamental idea of posthumanism is the rejection of biological, ethical, and ontological anthropocentrism. Transhumanism focuses on changing and improving natural human characteristics through biological, technological, and cognitive modifications. While posthumanism draws attention to the crisis of humanism, transhumanism is the latter's heir. Scientific and ethical consequences of posthumanism, as well as the sociocultural potential of transhumanism, are considered in this article. Posthumanism carries risks of shifting the value focus from man to other objects, which in the long term can lead to a critical decrease in the value status of man. Transhumanism has the potential to preserve man as an effective economic and cognizing agent. It is suggested that Russian society has a sociocultural potential for moving towards "technological humanism."

This book brings together sixteen of the world’s foremost thinkers on the prospects of a radical reshaping of human nature through biotechnologies and artificial intelligence. The often heated debate about transhumanism is an extremely fruitful field for philosophical and theological inquiry. The last hundred years of human evolution have seen remarkable scientific and technological transformations. If the pace of change continues and indeed accelerates in the twenty-first century, then in short order we will be a much-transformed species on a much-transformed planet. The idea of some fixed human nature, a human essence from which we derive notions of humane dignities and essential human rights, no longer applies in this brave new world of free market evolution. On what basis then do we make moral judgments and pursue pragmatic ends. Should we try to limit the development of certain sciences and technologies? How would we do so? Is it even possible? Are either traditional religious or Enlightenment values adequate at a speciation horizon between humans and posthumans? Is the ideology of transhumanism dangerous independent of the technology? Is the ideology of the bioconservatives, those who oppose transhumanism, also dangerous and how? Are the new sciences and technologies celebrated by transhumanists realistic or just another form of wishful thinking?

Scientific and technological advances have questioned predominant doctrines concerning the human condition. Transhumanism and posthumanism are among the most recent and prominent manifestations of this phenomenon. Debates on trans- and posthumanism have not only gained a considerable amount of academic and popular attention recently, but have also created a widespread conceptual confusion. This is no surprise, considering their recent dates of origin, their conceptual similarities, and their engagements with similar questions, topics, and motifs. Furthermore, trans- as well as posthumanism frequently question their relationship to humanism and reconsider what it means to be human. In this regard both movements are streaming beyond humanism. What this means, however, is far from clear and shall be subject of discussion in this volume.

Studies in Sociology of Science, 2014

The author provides a philosophical and moral evaluation of a number of arguments against and in favour of posthumanism. Some of the arguments explored are: the claim that current evils are necessary to maintain our humanity; Sandel's association of radical enhancement with the striving for mastery and perfection; psychological concerns about posthumanism; the "simple conservative argument" (Buchanan); the idea of unlimited longevity; as well as possible issues in the relationship between unenhanced people and posthumans. The author defends the idea that radical enhancements are justified in view of the possible lag of natural selection to select desirable/ necessary current human traits. He also rejects the idea that "human nature" ought to be regarded as a moral desideratum. His conclusion is that the possibility of radical (also biomedical) human enhancements does not warrant blanket moral approval or disapproval. We ought to see what specific possibilities arise, and then judge those possibilities on their own, specific merit.

Theology and Science, 2018

In this article I will focus on the topic that has engaged me for the past 15 years-transhumanism. When I tell people that I write about transhumanism, I usually encounter a perplexed look, since most people are unfamiliar with the term. However, here at CTNS the term is well known, and I was very pleased to attend a class that studies transhumanism and that is very familiar with the current literature on the subject. To be sure we all know what we are talking about, let me begin by presenting transhumanism and telling you why transhumanism matters. Transhumanism is not easy to define. According to the leading transhumanist theorist, Nick Bostrom, "transhumanism is a loosely defined movement … [that] represents an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the ethical, social and strategic issues raised by present and anticipated future technologies." 1 In the same essay, Bostrom also refers to transhumanism as a "worldview that has a value component," and that broader definition is more appropriate. Transhumanism is a vision about the role of technology in the evolution of the human species. There are many facets to transhumanism, but they all cohere into the claim that the human species is on the verge of a new phase in its evolution as the result of converging technologies such as genomics, robotics, informatics, and nanotechnology. According to transhumanism, these technologies will bring about the physiological and cognitive enhancement of human beings that will pave the way for the replacement of biological humans by autonomous, superintelligent, decision-making machines, which will constitute the posthuman age. Whereas biological humans emerged out of the slow, uncontrolled, and unpredictable process of evolution, the process that will bring about the posthuman will be fast, controlled, and directed, brought about by human engineering. Described as "enhancement revolution" (Buchanan), "radical evolution" (Garreau), "designer evolution" (Young), and "conscious evolution" (Chu), 2 this futurist scenario turns the human into a design project. By means of new technologies, the human species will be redesigned so as to transcend its biological limits and pave the way for the emergence of a new posthuman species. Numerically speaking, the transhumanist movement is still very small.

First, this paper will explain why human enhancement has always been part of humanity and why to refuse human enhancement is to negate the human fundamental drive for improvement. Second, we will distinguish between a “natural state” and an “artificial state” before defining humans as artificial agents that desire artificial conditions. As artificial agents, human species tend to depart from the original and primitive natural state to a more advanced artificial or technological state. Third, we will examine the two important arguments against transhumanism and explain why they are inaccurate or mistaken. On the one hand, the believe that enhancement trivializes the human identity and, on the other hand, the argument that considers that human enhancement is “playing God”.

Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET), 2015

As post- and transhumanism have become ever-hotter topics over the past decade or so, their boundaries have become muddled by misappropriations and misunderstandings of what defines them, and especially what distinguishes them from each other. This edition of essays by various experts, edited by Robert Ranisch and Stefan Sorgner, goes a long way to resolve these issues. The introductory essay by the two editors – both of whom are philosophers – is alone worth the book’s purchase price. They give a very straightforward and understandable synopsis of what defines posthumanism, transhumanism, and the posthuman; and they also give thumbnail sketches of the major differences between them. Basically, transhumanists believe in improving the human species by using any and every form of emerging technology. Technology is meant in the broad sense here: it includes everything from pharmaceuticals to digital technology, genetic modification to nanotechnology. The posthuman is the state that transhumans aspire to: a state in which our species is both morally and physically improved, and maybe immortal – a species improved to the point where we perhaps become a different (and thus “posthuman”) species altogether.

Abstract This essay introduces seven articles on transhumanity from a Jaspersian perspective, discusses the meaning, nature, and scope of transhumanist and post-humanist philosophies, and critically engages ideas concerning enhancement technologies and enhanced human/trans/post-human beings in the current historical situation. Keywords: Transhumanism; transhuman; post-humanism; post-human; human; humanitas; technology; technological enhancement; Jaspers, Karl; bioconservatives; futurology; social inequality; economic inequality; life expectancy; equality; public health; social determinants of health; kindness; care; ethical values; moral resources.

Humanism has long celebrated the human, including those qualities which make us uniquely human as well as the vastness of human potential. Humanistic psychology has further sought to understand what it means to be human and what conditions facilitate human flourishing and the unfolding of potential. Transhumanism, a movement advocating technologically aided human enhancements, represents a new and rapidly growing manifestation of humanistic ideals. Transhumanism identifies physical human limitations as limitations on potential and seeks to remove all such limits, understanding and often celebrating the fact that such changes could make us no longer recognizably human. Transhuman aims include technologically-aided radical human enhancements in longevity, health, intelligence, emotion, morality, and more. While the implications of transhumanism are being widely debated within fields such as philosophy and religion, contributions from psychology are scarce. With its wealth of wisdom into the heart of issues around what it means to be human, humanistic psychology is particularly well-suited to exploring transhuman issues. In addition to making a case for the involvement of humanistic psychology in transhumanism, the current work explores several specific areas in which humanistic psychology may be fruitfully applied, such as issues of potential and agency.

Future Human Image, 2020

The article discusses the mechanisms of improving the human organism presented in past centuries’ culture and analogous phenomena present in contemporary cultural texts. On this basis, theoretical and speculative aspects of posthumanism and transhumanism are described, their literary realizations, and finally, their cultural consequences are presented. Ideas, movements and ideologies, or even philosophies of posthumanism and transhumanism, although affecting the common problematic area, still cause confusion because of their mutual confusion with each other. The article tries to find arguments for the position that posthumanism and transhumanism stand in one house, but the latter is less suitable for understanding the radically changing world that we experience in such a painful way.