The Hidden Religious Dimension of Posthumanism

Since the end of the twentieht century, the intellectual movements of trans- and post-humanism have gained growing awarness in the humanities and social sciences, but also in a broader public. As Francesca Ferrando makes very clear in her brilliant and thought provoking introduction to Philosophical Posthumanism, both currents are connected in many ways but should nevertheless be sharply distinguished from each other: Whereas transhumanism develops visions of human enhancement via technology, posthumanism ismuch more a critical enterprise which reflects on problematic an thropocentrisms in all domains of natural and social life. As such, according to the first sentence of Ferrando’s book, “Posthumanism is the philosophy of our time” (Ferrando, 2019a, 1). A great deal of posthumanism’s attractivity is probably due to its astonishing unifying force. Many important critical movements and theoretical approaches who used to be practiced separatedly from each other seem to converge in philosophical posthumanism.

Estética post-humana en la obra gráfica de Claudio Romo

This paper considers the graphic work of the Chilean artist Claudio Romo from a post-human perspective. Romo's work realizes an opening of imaginaries, above all, new configurations of human being, in order to reconsider the boundaries of human nature and propose a new humanism in relation to a new understanding of modernity. After a theoretical tour of post-humanism, especially of Rosi Braidotti's philosophical nomadism, the paper will approach the post-human bestiary that elaborates Romo, on the one hand, as a questioning of access to empirical realities and, on the other hand, as a presentation of potential life forms. The paper will conclude on the presence, in Romo’s work, of a new affirmative humanism, that is, the experimentation of new modes of subjectivization, as well as the approach of new modes of knowledge.

Making New Land: An Intertidal Aesthetics

Making New Land is an essay in theory-fiction set in a near future, where the oceans have disappeared. In these devastated landscapes, a first person narrator investigates unsolved biological enigmas on Earth and on Mars. In the footsteps of a fictional group of Anarcho-botanists called Sea for Space, the story alternates a melancholic longing for the beauty of intertidal and coastal lifeforms with futuristic visions of new species engineered by humans as new companions. The scenario explores archetypal figures of plant-human coexistence: from the botanical gaze to a nostalgic longing for connection, and from the hubris of genetical engineering to the dream of a post-humanism communion with the vegetal. The fictional story is interwoven with scholarly references and a critical discussions of artistic and literary works dealing with the fauna, flora and mythologies of the seaside, which form the outlines of an 'Intertidal Aesthetics'.

Trans-humanism’s and Post-humanism’s Dialectics between Truth and Post-truth

The aim of this paper is to invite the reader to reflect on the essence of truth and post-truth in two approaches present in humanities and social sciences: trans-humanism and post-humanism. The notions of truth and post-truth, just like those of trans- and post-humanism, do not have a single defining interpretation. This implies disputes about what truth is and what is the role of man as an being, capable of creative activity, and thus of creating other entities and concepts describing them. However, the problem still remains the doubt as to what extent the ability of creative action allows man to know the truth (alternatively, to establish it), and to what extent it leads us astray. Post-truth emerges as a proposition in the face of the impossibility of reaching a consensus on the former. It is similar in the case of trans- and post-humanism, as concepts offering improved, because more up-to-date, approaches to the exploration of the human being himself, the motives of his actions, and his progress. The issues are presented by means of a critical analysis of selected scientific discourses, including definitions and research approaches that are gaining popularity in academia of the so-called Western cultural circle.

Deleuze Becoming-Mary Poppins: Re-Imagining the Concept of Becoming-Woman and Its Potential for Challenging Current Notions of Parenting, Gender and Childhood

In this paper, we consider the major and controversial lexicon of Deleuze’s ‘becoming-woman’ and what an alternative re-working of this concept might look like through the story of Mary Poppins. In playfully exploring the many interesting aspects of Travers’ character, with her classic tale about the vagaries of parenting, we attempt to highlight how reading Mary Poppins through the Deleuzian lens of ‘becoming-woman’ opens up possibilities, not limitations, in terms of feminist perspectives. In initially resisting the ‘Disneyfication’ of Mary Poppins, Travers offered insights and opportunities which we revisit and consider in terms of how this fictional character can significantly disrupt ideas of gender performativity. We endeavour to accentuate how one of its themes not only dismantles the patriarchy in 1910 but also has significant traction in the twenty- first century. We also put forth the idea of Mary Poppins as an icon of post-humanism, a nomadic war machine, with her robotic caring, magic powers and literal flights of fancy, to argue how she ironically holds the dual position of representing the professionalisation of parenting and the need to move beyond a Dionysian view of children as in need of control and regulation, as well as that of nurturer and emancipator. Indeed, in her many contradictions, we suggest a nomadic Mary Poppins can offer a route into the ideas of Deleuze and his view of children as de-territorialising forces and activators of change.

Philosophy of Inequality in the Context of Post-Humanism

In the article the author examines humanism criticism that does not result in post-humanism. The author shows that post-humanism is the reaction to the humanistic idea of man as the center of the world that was typical for west-European philosophy. At the same time post-humanism doe not negate the logic of humanism, but extrapolates it to the whole of non-human world. On the contrary, Russian philosophy is free from the original premises of humanism and it views the crisis of humanism in a different perspective. The author shows that Russian philosophy is not anthropocentric, but on the contrary – anthropologic. Its feature consists in viewing the man in the perspective of his ontological expansion. The idea of such ontological expansion is based on the philosophy of inequality. When west-European philosophy today conceptualizes total world democracy on the other side of man, Russian philosophy turns to the idea of metaphysical gaps that substantiate the idea of man’s freedom and anthropological necessity of self-restrictions.

Post-Humanism, Mutual Aid

This chapter commences with an in-depth exploration of the way the concrete computations of AI become entrained with unfairness and neoliberal politics. It will traverse from the operations of loss functions and optimisers at a tensor level to the ensuing discrimination, social ranking and administrative violence, making visible the ways in which AI becomes productive of both supremacism and the means by which to enact it. The second half of the chapter will propose ways in which machine learning can be reclaimed for the purposes of non-fascist living. Looking to a post-AI politics, the text challenges representationalism via Barad’s agential realism and puts forward a practical recomposition based on people’s and workers councils. The aim is to transform the character of AI from paranoid targeting to prefigurative relationality.

Plastic Memories of the Anthropocene

Plastic has become a ubiquitous material on planet Earth. I use Bennett’s term, thing-power, to analyse various aspects of plastic’s onto-materiality. Generally considered a single-use material, plastic is easily discarded, leaving the individualized, private space of capitalism, and becoming a nomad, in the terms of Deleuze and Guattari, thus travelling through a smooth space. Then, plastic enters a symbiotic relationship with all biotic and abiotic bodies, becoming endo-plastic. As a geological layer, it becomes a “vibrant” memory of the nexus between capitalism and humanism, revealing its full political potential. Plastic is a witness, by-product and determinant of the Anthropocene, and its memory tells the political and ideological geostory (Donna J. Haraway) of human exceptionalism. Becoming-plastic is one way of overcoming anthropocentrism: not just by advocating for “post-humanism,” but by advocating for “posthum-ism,” even if this means “embracing human extinction” (Patricia MacCormack).

The True Nature of Man is in Opening Himself. In Memory of S.S. Horuzhiy

The article is devoted to the work of Sergei Horuzhiy and his contribution to Russian philosophy. According to the author of the article, S.S. Horuzhiy should be considered not just as a historian of thought, but as someone who set himself the task of creating modern Russian philosophy. The article examines the central concept of S.S. Horuzhiy called synergistic anthropology and shows the philosophical context of this concept, as well as the tasks that it accomplishes. The author pays special attention to the current problem of post-humanism and shows the specifics of Russian philosophy by the example of S.S. Horuzhiy’s works. In the article the author offers a discussion of such problems as: what philosophy is, the main differences of Russian philosophy from its Western counterpart, what the destiny of modern Russian philosophy is. The author comes to the conclusion that Russian philosophy is anthropological, that is again proved by the works of a S.S. Horuzhiy.