View source for Posthumanism

{{Short description|Class of philosophies}}
{{About|a critique of anthropocentrism|the futurist ideology and movement|Transhumanism}}
{{Humanism}}
{{Human enhancement sidebar|Advocacy}}
'''Posthumanism''' or '''post-humanism''' (meaning "after [[humanism]]" or "beyond humanism") is an idea in [[continental philosophy]] and [[critical theory]] responding to the presence of [[anthropocentrism]] in 21st-century thought.<ref name="Ferrando 2013">{{cite journal| last=Ferrando | first=Francesca |title = Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism, and New Materialisms: Differences and Relations| journal=Existenz  |year = 2013 |url =  http://www.existenz.us/volumes/Vol.8-2Ferrando.pdf| issn = 1932-1066 | access-date=2014-03-14}}</ref> '''Posthumanization''' comprises "those processes by which a society comes to include members other than 'natural' biological [[Human|human beings]] who, in one way or another, contribute to the structures, dynamics, or meaning of the [[society]]."<ref name="Gladden 2018 def">{{cite book|title=Sapient Circuits and Digitalized Flesh: The Organization as Locus of Technological Posthumanization|edition=second|last1=Gladden|first1=Matthew|date=2018|url = http://www.matthewgladden.net/wp-content/uploads/Sapient-Circuits-and-Digitalized-Flesh-2e-M-Gladden-2018.pdf|publisher=Defragmenter Media|isbn=978-1-944373-21-4|location=Indianapolis, IN|page=19|access-date=March 14, 2018}} Elsewhere (p. 35) in the same text Gladden proposes a longer definition, stating that "The processes of posthumanization are those dynamics by which a society comes to include members other than 'natural' biological human beings who, in one way or another, contribute to the structures, activities, or meaning of the society. In this way, a society comes to incorporate a diverse range of intelligent human, non-human, and para-human social actors who seek to perceive, interpret, and influence their shared environment and who create knowledge and meaning through their networks and interactions."</ref>

It encompasses a wide variety of branches, including:
*''[[Antihumanism]]'': a branch of theory that is critical of traditional [[humanism]] and traditional ideas about the [[human condition]], vitality and agency.<ref>J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., ''The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism'' (1995) p. 140-1</ref>
*''Cultural posthumanism'': A branch of [[Culture theory|cultural theory]] critical of the foundational assumptions of humanism and its legacy<ref name="Esposito 2011">{{cite journal| last=Esposito | first=Roberto | author-link = Roberto Esposito |title = Politics and human nature| journal=[[Angelaki]] | volume=16 | issue=3 | pages=77–84 |year = 2011 | doi=10.1080/0969725X.2011.621222}}</ref> that examines and questions the historical notions of "human" and "[[human nature]]", often challenging typical notions of human subjectivity and embodiment<ref name=miah>Miah, A. (2008) A Critical History of Posthumanism. In Gordijn, B. & Chadwick R. (2008) Medical Enhancement and Posthumanity. Springer, pp.71-94.</ref> and strives to move beyond "archaic" concepts of "human nature" to develop ones which constantly adapt to contemporary [[technoscientific]] knowledge.<ref name="Badmington 2000">{{cite book| author = Badmington, Neil| title = Posthumanism (Readers in Cultural Criticism)| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| year = 2000| isbn = 978-0-333-76538-8}}</ref>
*''[[#Philosophical posthumanism|Philosophical posthumanism]]'': A [[philosophy|philosophical]] direction<ref>{{Cite book|title=Philosophical Posthumanism|last=Ferrando|first=Francesca|date=2019-06-27|isbn=9781350059498|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophical-posthumanism-9781350059498|publisher=Bloomsbury Reference Online|access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref> that draws on cultural posthumanism, the philosophical strand examines the ethical implications of expanding the circle of moral concern and extending subjectivities beyond the human species.<ref name=miah /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Morton, Timothy, 1968 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1004183444|title=Being ecological| date=9 March 2018 |isbn=978-0-262-03804-1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|oclc=1004183444}}</ref>
*''[[Posthuman condition]]'': The [[deconstruction]] of the [[human condition]] by [[critical theory|critical theorists]].<ref name="Hayles 1999">{{cite book| author = Hayles, N. Katherine| title = How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics| publisher = University Of Chicago Press| year = 1999| isbn = 978-0-226-32146-2| author-link = N. Katherine Hayles}}</ref>
*''Existential posthumanism'': it embraces posthumanism as a [[praxis (process)|praxis]] of existence.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Art of BeingPosthuman|last=Ferrando|first=Francesca|date=2024-02-14|isbn=9781509548965|url=https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-art-of-being-posthuman-who-are-we-in-the-21st-century--9781509548958|publisher=Polity|access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref> Its sources are drawn from non-dualistic global philosophies, such as [[Advaita Vedanta]], [[Taoism]] and [[Zen Buddhism]], the philosophies of [[Yoga]],<ref name="Banerji 2021">{{cite journal| last=Banerji |first=Debashish | author-link = Debashish Banerji |title = Traditions of Yoga in Existential Posthuman Praxis|journal=Journal of Posthumanism | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=1–6|year = 2021 | doi=10.33182/jp.v1i2.1777 |url=https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/article/view/1777/1381}}</ref> continental [[existentialism]], native epistemologies and [[Sufism]], among others. It examines and challenges hegemonic notions of being "human" by delving into the history of embodied practices of being human and, thus, expanding the reflection on [[human nature]].
*''[[Posthuman future|Posthuman transhumanism]]'': A [[transhuman]] ideology and movement which, drawing from posthumanist philosophy, seeks to develop and make available technologies that enable immortality and greatly [[Human enhancement|enhance]] human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities in order to achieve a "posthuman future".<ref name="Bostrom 2005">{{cite journal| last=Bostrom | first=Nick | author-link = Nick Bostrom |title = A history of transhumanist thought|year = 2005 |url = http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf| access-date=2006-02-21}}; [[Oliver Krüger]]: ''Virtual Immortality. God, Evolution, and the Singularity in Post- and Transhumanism.'', Bielefeld: transcript 2021</ref>
*''[[AI takeover]]'': A variant of transhumanism in which humans will not be enhanced, but rather eventually ''replaced'' by [[artificial general intelligence|artificial intelligences]]. Some philosophers and theorists, including [[Nick Land]], promote the view that humans should embrace and accept their eventual demise as a consequence of a [[technological singularity]].<ref name="darkright">{{cite web|url=http://www.theawl.com/2015/09/good-luck-to-human-kind|title=The Darkness Before the Right|access-date=2015-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517115445/http://www.theawl.com/2015/09/good-luck-to-human-kind|archive-date=2016-05-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> This is related to the view of "[[The Artilect War|cosmism]]", which supports the building of strong artificial intelligence even if it may entail the end of humanity, as in their view it "would be a cosmic tragedy if humanity freezes [[evolution]] at the puny human level".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.iss.whu.edu.cn/degaris/news/zurich.html | title = First shot in Artilect war fired | author = Hugo de Garis | year = 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017165724/http://iss.whu.edu.cn/degaris/news/zurich.html|archive-date=17 October 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | date=3 September 2007 | url=http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/interview-hugo-de-garis.html | title=Machines Like Us interviews: Hugo de Garis | quote=gigadeath – the characteristic number of people that would be killed in any major late 21st century war, if one extrapolates up the graph of the number of people killed in major wars over the past 2 centuries | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007081149/http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/interview-hugo-de-garis.html | archive-date=7 October 2007 }}</ref><ref name=artiwar>{{cite web|last1=Garis|first1=Hugo de|title=The Artilect War - Cosmists vs. Terrans|url=http://agi-conf.org/2008/artilectwar.pdf|website=agi-conf.org|access-date=14 June 2015}}</ref>
*''[[Voluntary Human Extinction Movement|Voluntary human extinction]]'': Seeks a "posthuman future" that in this case is a future without humans.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Torres, Phil|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1002065011|title=Morality, foresight, and human flourishing : an introduction to existential risks|date=12 September 2017|isbn=978-1-63431-143-4|location=Durham, North Carolina|oclc=1002065011}}</ref>

==Philosophical posthumanism==
Philosopher [[Theodore Schatzki]] suggests there are two varieties of posthumanism of the philosophical kind:<ref name="ref-schatzki">Schatzki, T.R. 2001.  Introduction: Practice theory, in ''The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory'' eds. [[Theodore Schatzki]], Karin Knorr Cetina & Eike Von Savigny. pp. 10-11</ref>

One, which he calls "objectivism", tries to counter the overemphasis of the subjective, or [[intersubjective]], that pervades humanism, and emphasises the role of the nonhuman agents, whether they be animals and plants, or computers or other things, because "Humans and nonhumans, it [objectivism] proclaims, codetermine one another", and also claims "independence of (some) objects from human activity and conceptualization".<ref name="ref-schatzki"/>

A second posthumanist agenda is "the prioritization of practices over individuals (or individual subjects)", which, they say, constitute the individual.<ref name="ref-schatzki"/>

There may be a third kind of posthumanism, propounded by the philosopher [[Herman Dooyeweerd]].  Though he did not label it "posthumanism", he made an [[immanent critique]] of humanism, and then constructed a philosophy that presupposed neither humanist, nor [[Scholasticism|scholastic]], nor Greek thought but started with a different [[religious ground motive]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.dooy.info/ground.motives.html | title=Ground Motives - the Dooyeweerd Pages}}</ref>  Dooyeweerd prioritized law and meaningfulness as that which enables humanity and all else to exist, behave, live, occur, etc.  "''Meaning'' is the ''being'' of all that has been ''created''", Dooyeweerd wrote, "and the nature even of our selfhood".<ref name="dy-nc">
Dooyeweerd, H. (1955/1984). A new critique of theoretical thought (Vol. 1). Jordan Station, Ontario, Canada: Paideia Press. P. 4</ref>  Both human and nonhuman alike function subject to a common ''law-side'', which is diverse, composed of a number of distinct law-spheres or ''aspects''.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dooy.info/2sides.html| title = 'law-side'}}</ref> The temporal being of both human and non-human is multi-aspectual; for example, both plants and humans are bodies, functioning in the biotic aspect, and both computers and humans function in the formative and lingual aspect, but humans function in the aesthetic, juridical, ethical and faith aspects too. The Dooyeweerdian version is able to incorporate and integrate both the objectivist version and the practices version, because it allows nonhuman agents their own subject-functioning in various aspects and places emphasis on aspectual functioning.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dooy.info/subject.object.html| title = his radical notion of subject-object relations}}</ref>

==Emergence of philosophical posthumanism==
[[Ihab Hassan]], theorist in the [[literary theory|academic study of literature]], once stated: "Humanism may be coming to an end as humanism transforms itself into something one must helplessly call posthumanism."<ref name="Hassan 1977">{{cite book | author = Hassan, Ihab | editor = Michel Benamou, Charles Caramello | title = Performance in Postmodern Culture | publisher = Coda Press | location = Madison, Wisconsin | year = 1977 | chapter = Prometheus as Performer: Toward a Postmodern Culture? | isbn = 978-0-930956-00-4| author-link = Ihab Hassan }}</ref> This view predates most currents of posthumanism which have developed over the late 20th century in somewhat diverse, but complementary, domains of thought and practice. For example, Hassan is a known scholar whose theoretical writings expressly address [[postmodernity]] in [[society]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thiher  |first= Allen  |date= 1990|title= Postmodernism's Evolution as Seen by Ihab Hassan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1208589.pdf |journal= Contemporary Literature |volume= 31 |issue=2 |pages= 236–239|doi=10.2307/1208589  |jstor= 1208589 |access-date= December 19, 2020}}</ref> Beyond postmodernist studies, posthumanism has been developed and deployed by various cultural theorists, often in reaction to problematic inherent assumptions within humanistic and [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] thought.<ref name=miah />

Theorists who both complement and contrast Hassan include [[Michel Foucault]], [[Judith Butler]], [[Cybernetics|cyberneticists]] such as [[Gregory Bateson]], [[Warren McCullouch]], [[Norbert Wiener]], and thinkers such as [[Bruno Latour]], [[Cary Wolfe]], [[Elaine Graham]], [[N. Katherine Hayles]], [[Benjamin H. Bratton]], [[Donna Haraway]], [[Rosi Braidotti]], [[Francesca Ferrando]], [[Peter Sloterdijk]], [[Stefan Lorenz Sorgner]], [[Evan Thompson]], [[Francisco Varela]], [[Humberto Maturana]], [[Timothy Morton]], and [[Douglas Kellner]]. Among the theorists are philosophers, such as Robert Pepperell, who have written about a "posthuman condition", which is often substituted for the term ''posthumanism''.<ref name="Badmington 2000"/><ref name="Hayles 1999"/>

Posthumanism differs from classical humanism by relegating humanity back to [[biocentrism (ethics)|one of many natural species]], thereby rejecting any claims founded on [[anthropocentric]] dominance.<ref name=wolfe>Wolfe, C. (2009). [https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/what-is-posthumanism ''What is Posthumanism?''] University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, Minnesota.</ref> According to this claim, humans have no inherent rights to destroy nature or set themselves above it in [[ethical]] considerations ''[[a priori and a posteriori|a priori]]''. Human [[knowledge]] is also reduced to a less controlling position, previously seen as the defining aspect of the world. [[Human rights]] exist on a spectrum with [[animal rights]] and posthuman rights.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Posthuman Rights: Dimensions of Transhuman Worlds|journal=Teknokultura|volume=12|issue=2|author=Evans, Woody|year=2015|doi=10.5209/rev_TK.2015.v12.n2.49072|author-link=Woody Evans|doi-access=free}}</ref> The limitations and fallibility of [[Intelligence#Human intelligence|human intelligence]] are confessed, even though it does not imply abandoning the [[rationalism|rational]] tradition of humanism.<ref>Addressed repeatedly, albeit differently, among scholars, e.g. Stefan Herbrechter, ''Posthumanism: A Critical Analysis'' (London: A&C Black, 2013), 126 and 196-97. {{ISBN|1780936907}}, 9781780936901</ref>

Proponents of a posthuman discourse, suggest that innovative advancements and emerging technologies have transcended the traditional model of the human, as proposed by [[Descartes]] among others associated with philosophy of the [[Enlightenment age|Enlightenment period]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Badmington|first1=Neil|title=Posthumanism|url=http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405183123_chunk_g978140518312363_ss1-3|publisher=Blackwell Reference Online|access-date=22 September 2015}}</ref> Posthumanistic views were also found in the works of [[Shakespeare]].<ref name="Herbrechter Callus Rossini Grech 2022 p. 708">{{cite book | last1=Herbrechter | first1=S. | last2=Callus | first2=I. | last3=Rossini | first3=M. | last4=Grech | first4=M. | last5=de Bruin-Molé | first5=M. | last6=Müller | first6=C.J. | title=Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism | publisher=Springer International Publishing | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-031-04958-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=enaeEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA708 | access-date=2023-03-20 | page=708}}</ref> In contrast to humanism, the discourse of posthumanism seeks to redefine the boundaries surrounding modern philosophical understanding of the human. Posthumanism represents an evolution of thought beyond that of the contemporary social boundaries and is predicated on the seeking of truth within a postmodern context. In so doing, it rejects previous attempts to establish "[[anthropological universal]]s" that are imbued with anthropocentric assumptions.<ref name=wolfe /> Recently, critics have sought to describe the emergence of posthumanism as a critical moment in modernity, arguing for the origins of key posthuman ideas in modern fiction,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://criticalposthumanism.net/genealogy/|title=Genealogy|date=2013-10-01|website=Critical Posthumanism Network|access-date=2019-07-30}}</ref> in Nietzsche,<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-literature-and-the-posthuman/modern/F177AE0B05A6A081E73F17D39FFA4ED5|chapter=Modern|last=Wallace|first=Jeff|title=The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman|date=December 2016|website=The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman|pages=41–53|doi=10.1017/9781316091227.007|isbn=9781316091227|access-date=2019-07-30}}</ref> or in a modernist response to the crisis of historicity.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/title/54051|title=Fantasies of Self-Mourning: Modernism, the Posthuman and the Finite|last=Borg|first=Ruben|date=2019-01-07|publisher=Brill Rodopi|isbn=9789004390355|doi=10.1163/9789004390355| s2cid=194194777 }}</ref>

Although Nietzsche's philosophy has been characterized as posthumanist,<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PRttDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22posthumanist%22+%22nietzsche%22&pg=PA203 | isbn=9781501335693 | title=Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism: Mind, Matter, and the Life Sciences after Kant | date=4 October 2018 | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMzLDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22posthumanist%22+%22nietzsche%22&pg=PT95 | isbn=9781317044079 | title=The Routledge Handbook of Biopolitics | date=5 August 2016 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7qdDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22posthumanist%22+%22nietzsche%22&pg=PA50 | isbn=9781350059481 | title=Philosophical Posthumanism | date=27 June 2019 | publisher=Bloomsbury }}</ref> Foucault placed posthumanism within a context that differentiated humanism from [[Enlightenment Thought|Enlightenment thought]]. According to Foucault, the two existed in a state of tension: as humanism sought to establish norms while Enlightenment thought attempted to transcend all that is material, including the boundaries that are constructed by humanistic thought.<ref name=wolfe />  Drawing on the Enlightenment's challenges to the boundaries of humanism, posthumanism rejects the various assumptions of human dogmas (anthropological, political, scientific) and takes the next step by attempting to change the nature of thought about what it means to be human. This requires not only decentering the human in multiple discourses (evolutionary, ecological and technological) but also examining those discourses to uncover inherent humanistic, anthropocentric, normative notions of humanness and the concept of the human.

==Contemporary posthuman discourse==
Posthumanistic discourse aims to open up spaces to examine what it means to be human and critically question the concept of "the human" in light of current cultural and historical contexts.<ref name=miah /> In her book ''How We Became Posthuman'', [[N. Katherine Hayles]], writes about the struggle between different versions of the posthuman as it continually co-evolves alongside intelligent machines.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cecchetto|first1=David|title=Humanesis: Sound and Technological Posthumanism|date=2013|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location=Minneapolis, MN}}</ref> Such coevolution, according to some strands of the posthuman discourse, allows one to extend their [[Subjectivity|subjective]] understandings of real experiences beyond the boundaries of [[embodied cognition|embodied]]  existence. According to Hayles's view of posthuman, often referred to as "technological posthumanism", [[visual perception]] and digital representations thus paradoxically become ever more salient. Even as one seeks to extend knowledge by deconstructing perceived boundaries, it is these same boundaries that make knowledge acquisition possible. The use of technology in a contemporary society is thought to complicate this relationship.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hayles |first=N. Katherine |title=Unthought: the power of the cognitive nonconscious|date=5 April 2017|isbn=978-0-226-44774-2 |location=Chicago |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |oclc=956775338}}</ref>

[[N. Katherine Hayles|Hayles]] discusses the translation of human bodies into information (as suggested by [[Hans Moravec]]) in order to illuminate how the boundaries of our embodied reality have been compromised in the current age and how narrow definitions of humanness no longer apply. Because of this, according to Hayles, posthumanism is characterized by a loss of subjectivity based on bodily boundaries.<ref name=miah />  This strand of posthumanism, including the changing notion of subjectivity and the disruption of ideas concerning what it means to be human, is often associated with [[Donna Haraway]]'s concept of the [[cyborg]].<ref name=miah /> However, Haraway has distanced herself from posthumanistic discourse due to other theorists' use of the term to promote [[Utopianism|utopian]] views of technological innovation to extend the human biological capacity<ref name=gane /> (even though these notions would more correctly fall into the realm of transhumanism<ref name=miah />).

While posthumanism is a broad and complex ideology, it has relevant implications today and for the future. It attempts to redefine [[social structures]] without inherently humanly or even biological origins, but rather in terms of [[social system|social]] and [[psychological]] systems where [[consciousness]] and [[communication]] could potentially exist as unique [[Incorporeality|disembodied]] entities. Questions subsequently emerge with respect to the current use and the future of technology in shaping human existence,<ref name=wolfe /> as do new concerns with regards to language, [[symbolism (arts)|symbolism]], subjectivity, [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]], ethics, justice and creativity.

==Technological versus non-technological==
Posthumanism can be divided into  ''non-technological'' and ''technological'' forms.<ref name="Herbrechter 2013 two forms">{{cite book|title=Posthumanism: A Critical Analysis|last1=Herbrechter|first1=Stefan|date=2013|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-7809-3690-1|location=London}}After referring (p. 3) to "the current technology-centred discussion about the potential transformation of humans into something else (a process that might be called 'posthumanization')," Herbrechter offers an analysis of Lyotard's essay "A Postmodern Fable," in which Herbrechter concludes (p. 7) that "What Lyotard's sequel to Nietzsche's fable shows is that, on the one hand, there is no point in denying the ongoing technologization of the human species, and, on the other hand, that a purely technology-centred idea of posthumanization is not enough to escape the humanist paradigm."</ref><ref name="Gladden 2018">{{cite book|title=Sapient Circuits and Digitalized Flesh: The Organization as Locus of Technological Posthumanization|edition=second|last1=Gladden|first1=Matthew|date=2018|url = http://www.matthewgladden.net/wp-content/uploads/Sapient-Circuits-and-Digitalized-Flesh-2e-M-Gladden-2018.pdf|publisher=Defragmenter Media|isbn=978-1-944373-21-4|location=Indianapolis, IN|access-date=March 14, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=On Trans-Humanism (Review)|last=Evans|first=Woody|date=2022|journal=Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation|url=https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/prometheus.38.2.0271|access-date=January 16, 2025}}</ref>

=== Non-technological posthumanism ===
While posthumanization has links with the scholarly methodologies of posthumanism, it is a distinct phenomenon. The rise of explicit posthumanism as a scholarly approach is relatively recent, occurring since the late 1970s;<ref name="Ferrando 2013"/><ref name="Herbrechter 2013" /> however, some of the processes of posthumanization that it studies are ancient. For example, the dynamics of ''non-technological'' posthumanization have existed historically in all societies in which animals were incorporated into families as [[Pet|household pets]] or in which [[ghosts]], [[monster]]s, [[angel]]s, or semidivine [[Greek hero cult|heroes]] were considered to play some role in the world.<ref name="Graham 2002">{{cite book|title=Representations of the Post/Human: Monsters, Aliens and Others in Popular Culture|last1=Graham|first1=Elaine|date=2002|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0-8135-3058-X|location=Manchester}}</ref><ref name="Herbrechter 2013">{{cite book|title=Posthumanism: A Critical Analysis|last1=Herbrechter|first1=Stefan|date=2013|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-7809-3690-1|location=London}}</ref><ref name="Gladden 2018" />

Such non-technological posthumanization has been manifested not only in mythological and literary works but also in the construction of [[temple]]s, [[Cemetery|cemeteries]], [[zoo]]s, or other physical structures that were considered to be inhabited or used by quasi- or para-human beings who were not natural, living, biological human beings but who nevertheless played some role within a given society,<ref name="Herbrechter 2013" /><ref name="Gladden 2018" /> to the extent that, according to philosopher [[Francesca Ferrando]]: "the notion of [[spirituality]] dramatically broadens our understanding of the posthuman, allowing us to investigate not only technical technologies (robotics, cybernetics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, among others), but also, technologies of existence."<ref Name="Ferrando 2016">{{cite book | last = Ferrando | first = Francesca |editor1= Banerji, Debashish | title = Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures | edition = 1st| publisher = Springer  | location = New York | isbn = 9788132236375 | year = 2016 | pages = 243–256 | chapter = Humans Have Always Been Posthuman: A Spiritual Genealogy of the Posthuman | chapter-url = https://www.academia.edu/31138169 |  access-date=2018-08-08 | display-editors=etal}}</ref>

=== Technological posthumanism ===
Some forms of technological posthumanization involve efforts to directly alter the social, psychological, or physical structures and behaviors of the human being through the development and application of technologies relating to [[genetic engineering]] or [[Neuroprosthetics|neurocybernetic augmentation]]; such forms of posthumanization are studied, e.g., by [[Cyborg|cyborg theory]].<ref name="Gray 1995">''The Cyborg Handbook'' (1995). Chris Hables Gray, editor. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415908498}}.</ref> Other forms of technological posthumanization indirectly "posthumanize" human society through the deployment of [[social robot]]s or attempts to develop [[artificial general intelligence]]s, [[Cognitive robotics|sentient networks]], or other entities that can collaborate and interact with human beings as members of posthumanized societies.

The dynamics of technological posthumanization have long been an important element of [[science fiction]]; genres such as [[cyberpunk]] take them as a central focus. In recent decades, technological posthumanization has also become the subject of increasing attention by scholars and policymakers. The expanding and accelerating forces of technological posthumanization have generated diverse and conflicting responses, with some researchers viewing the processes of posthumanization as opening the door to a more meaningful and advanced [[Transhumanism|transhumanist]] future for humanity,<ref name="Moravec 1988">{{cite book|title=Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence|url=https://archive.org/details/mindchildrenfutu00mora|url-access=registration|last1=Moravec|first1=Hans|date=1988|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=0-674-57618-7|location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="Kurzweil 2005">{{cite book|title=The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology|last1=Kurzweil|first1=Ray|date=2005|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781101218884|location=New York, NY}}</ref><ref name="Bostrom 2008">{{cite book|last=Bostrom|first=Nick|title=Medical Enhancement and Posthumanity|chapter=Why I Want to Be a Posthuman When I Grow Up|chapter-url=https://nickbostrom.com/posthuman.pdf|year=2008|editor1-last=Gordijn|editor1-first=Bert|editor2-last=Chadwick|editor2-first=Ruth|pages=107–137|publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=978-1-4020-8851-3|access-date=August 16, 2018}}</ref> while other [[Bioconservatism|bioconservative]] critiques warn that such processes may lead to a fragmentation of human society, loss of meaning, and subjugation to the forces of technology.<ref name="Fukuyama 2002">{{cite book|title=Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution|last1=Fukuyama|first1=Francis|date=2002|publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux|isbn=9781861972972|location=New York, NY}}</ref>

=== Common features ===
Processes of technological and non-technological posthumanization both tend to result in a partial "de-[[Anthropocentrism|anthropocentrization]]" of human society, as its circle of membership is expanded to include other types of entities and the position of human beings is decentered. A common theme of posthumanist study is the way in which processes of posthumanization challenge or blur simple [[Binary opposition|binaries]], such as those of "human versus non-human", "natural versus artificial", "alive versus non-alive", and "biological versus mechanical".<ref name="Ferrando 2013 non-dualistic">Ferrando, Francesca (2013). "Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism, and New Materialisms: Differences and Relations." ''Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts'' 8 (2): 26-32. ISSN 1932-1066. Ferrando notes (p. 27) that such challenging of binaries constitutes part of "the post-anthropocentric and post-dualistic approach of (philosophical, cultural, and critical) posthumanism."</ref><ref name="Herbrechter 2013" />

==Relationship with transhumanism==
Sociologist [[James Hughes (sociologist)|James Hughes]] comments that there is considerable confusion between the two terms.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last1=Ranisch|first1=Robert|title=Post- and Transhumanism: An Introduction|date=January 2014|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269405350|access-date=25 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=MacFarlane|first1=James|title=Boundary Work: Post- and Transhumanism, Part I, James Michael MacFarlane|url=https://social-epistemology.com/2014/12/23/boundary-work-post-and-transhumanism-part-i-james-michael-macfarlane/|access-date=25 August 2016|date=2014-12-23}}</ref>  In the introduction to their book on post- and transhumanism, Robert Ranisch and [[Stefan Lorenz Sorgner|Stefan Sorgner]] address the source of this confusion, stating that posthumanism is often used as an umbrella term that includes both transhumanism and critical posthumanism.<ref name=":0" />

Although both subjects relate to the future of humanity, they differ in their view of anthropocentrism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Umbrello|first=Steven|date=2018-10-17|title=Posthumanism|url=https://pubs.biblio.laurentian.ca/index.php/contexte/article/view/279|journal=Con Texte|language=en|volume=2|issue=1|pages=28–32|doi=10.28984/ct.v2i1.279|issn=2561-4770|doi-access=free}}</ref> Pramod Nayar, author of ''Posthumanism'', states that posthumanism has two main branches: ontological and critical.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Posthumanism|last=K.|first=Nayar, Pramod|isbn=9780745662404|location=Cambridge|oclc=863676564|date = 2013-10-28}}</ref> Ontological posthumanism is synonymous with transhumanism. The subject is regarded as "an intensification of humanism".<ref>{{Cite book|title=What is posthumanism?|last=Cary.|first=Wolfe|date=2010|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=9780816666157|location=Minneapolis|oclc=351313274}}</ref> Transhumanist thought suggests that humans are not post human yet, but that human enhancement, often through technological advancement and application, is the passage of becoming post human.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hb1ErdEer8YC&q=wolfe+post+human|title=What is Posthumanism?|last=Wolfe|first=Cary|date=2010|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=9780816666140}}</ref> [[Transhumanism]] retains humanism's focus on the Homo sapiens as the center of the world but also considers technology to be an integral aid to human progression. Critical posthumanism, however, is opposed to these views.<ref>{{Cite book|date=2016-01-01|title=From Humanism to Meta-, Post- and Transhumanism?|url=https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/18161|access-date=2020-10-08|website=www.peterlang.com|language=en|doi=10.3726/978-3-653-05483-5|isbn=9783653967883|editor1-last=Deretić|editor1-first=Irina|editor2-last=Sorgner|editor2-first=Stefan Lorenz}}</ref> Critical posthumanism "rejects both human exceptionalism (the idea that humans are unique creatures) and human instrumentalism (that humans have a right to control the natural world)".<ref name=":1" /> These contrasting views on the importance of human beings are the main distinctions between the two subjects.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Umbrello|first1=Steven|last2=Lombard|first2=Jessica|date=2018-12-14|title=Silence of the Idols: Appropriating the Myth of Sisyphus for Posthumanist Discourses|url=https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/1118|journal=Postmodern Openings|language=en|volume=9|issue=4|pages=98–121|doi=10.18662/po/47|issn=2069-9387|doi-access=free|hdl=2318/1686606|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Transhumanism is also more ingrained in popular culture than critical posthumanism, especially in science fiction. The term is referred to by Pramod Nayar as "the pop posthumanism of cinema and pop culture".<ref name=":1" />

==Criticism==
Some critics have argued that all forms of posthumanism, including transhumanism, have more in common than their respective proponents realize.<ref name="Winner 2005">{{cite book | author = Winner, Langdon | editor = Harold Bailie, Timothy Casey| title = Is Human Nature Obsolete?| publisher =M.I.T. Press  | location = Massachusetts Institute of Technology, October 2004| isbn = 978-0262524285 | pages = 385–411 | chapter = Resistance is Futile: The Posthuman Condition and Its Advocates| year = 2005| author-link = Langdon Winner}}</ref> Linking these different approaches, [[Paul James (academic)|Paul James]] suggests that "the key political problem is that, in effect, the position allows the human as a category of being to flow down the plughole of history":

{{blockquote|This is ontologically critical. Unlike the naming of 'postmodernism' where the 'post' does not infer the end of what it previously meant to be human (just the passing of the dominance of the modern) the posthumanists are playing a serious game where the human, in all its ontological variability, disappears in the name of saving something unspecified about us as merely a motley co-location of individuals and communities.<ref>{{Cite book | year= 2017 | last1= James | first1= Paul | author-link1= Paul James (academic) | chapter= Alternative Paradigms for Sustainability: Decentring the Human without Becoming Posthuman | title= Reimagining Sustainability in Precarious Times | editor1= Karen Malone|editor2=Son Truong|editor3=Tonia Gray | chapter-url= https://www.academia.edu/32388929 | publisher= Ashgate | page=21}}</ref>}}

However, some posthumanists in the [[humanities]] and the [[arts]] are critical of transhumanism (the brunt of James's criticism), in part, because they argue that it incorporates and extends many of the values of [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment humanism]] and [[classical liberalism]], namely [[scientism]], according to [[performance art|performance]] philosopher [[Shannon Bell]]:<ref name="Zaretsky 2005">{{cite journal|    author = Zaretsky, Adam|    title = Bioart in Question. Interview.|    year = 2005|    url = http://magazine.ciac.ca/archives/no_23/en/entrevue.htm|    access-date = 2007-01-28|    url-status = dead|    archive-url = https://archive.today/20130115125814/http://magazine.ciac.ca/archives/no_23/en/entrevue.htm|    archive-date = 2013-01-15}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Altruism, mutualism, humanism are the soft and slimy virtues that underpin liberal capitalism. Humanism has always been integrated into discourses of exploitation: colonialism, imperialism, neoimperialism, democracy, and of course, American democratization. One of the serious flaws in transhumanism is the importation of liberal-human values to the biotechno enhancement of the human. Posthumanism has a much stronger critical edge attempting to develop through enactment new understandings of the self and others, essence, consciousness, intelligence, reason, agency, intimacy, life, embodiment, identity and the body.<ref name="Zaretsky 2005"/>}}

While many modern leaders of thought are accepting of nature of ideologies described by posthumanism, some are more skeptical of the term. Haraway, the author of [[Cyborg Manifesto|''A Cyborg Manifesto'']], has outspokenly rejected the term, though acknowledges a philosophical alignment with posthumanism. Haraway opts instead for the term of companion species, referring to nonhuman entities with which humans coexist.<ref name=gane>{{cite journal|last1=Gane|first1=Nicholas|title=When We Have Never Been Human, What Is to Be Done?: Interview with Donna Haraway|journal=Theory, Culture & Society|date=2006|volume=23|issue=7–8|pages=135–158|doi=10.1177/0263276406069228|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Questions of race, some argue, are suspiciously elided within the "turn" to posthumanism. Noting that the terms "post" and "human" are already loaded with racial meaning, critical theorist Zakiyyah Iman Jackson argues that the impulse to move "beyond" the human within posthumanism too often ignores "praxes of humanity and critiques produced by black people",{{sfn|Jackson|2015|p=216}} including [[Frantz Fanon]], [[Aimé Césaire|Aime Cesaire]], [[Hortense Spillers]] and [[Fred Moten]].{{sfn|Jackson|2015|p=216}} Interrogating the conceptual grounds in which such a mode of "beyond" is rendered legible and viable, Jackson argues that it is important to observe that "blackness conditions and constitutes the very nonhuman disruption and/or disruption" which posthumanists invite.{{sfn|Jackson|2015|p=216}} In other words, given that race in general and blackness in particular constitute the very terms through which human-nonhuman distinctions are made, for example in enduring legacies of [[scientific racism]], a gesture toward a "beyond" actually "returns us to a Eurocentric transcendentalism long challenged".{{sfn|Jackson|2015|p=217}} Posthumanist scholarship, due to characteristic rhetorical techniques, is also frequently subject to the same [[Criticism of postmodernism|critiques commonly made of postmodernist]] scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s.

==See also==
* [[Bioconservatism]]
* [[Cyborg anthropology]]
* [[Posthuman]]
* [[Superhuman]]
* [[Technological change]]
* [[Technological transitions]]
* [[Transhumanism]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
* {{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Zakiyyah Iman |date=June 2015 |title=Outer Worlds: The Persistence of Race in Movement 'Beyond the Human' |url=https://www.academia.edu/12310146 |journal=GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies |volume=21 |issue=2-3: Queer Inhumanisms |pages=215–218}} Via [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/582032/summary Project Muse] {{subscription}}.

{{Philosophy topics|schools}}
{{Postmodernism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Posthumanism| ]]
[[Category:Critical theory]]
[[Category:Ontology]]
[[Category:Philosophical theories]]
[[Category:Philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Postmodernism]]
[[Category:Philosophy of technology]]