Hi everyone my name is Francesca Ferrando.
I'm a professor of philosophy here at NYU program of Liberal Studies and I'm a posthuman philosopher, that's why it's very exciting for me to share with you today the notion of the posthuman.
So, I'm going to address in this video the question “what does posthuman mean”?
Some of you might have found the term in an article or in a video or at a conference and maybe you have asked yourself “but what does posthuman mean”?
That's a very relevant question in the 21st century and is a question that can be addressed from a philosophical perspective in many different ways. Why is that? Because the posthuman is an umbrella term. Posthuman is an umbrella term that is defined by many different schools of thought in different ways. Which schools of thought we are referring to? Well there are many. On one side we can see, for instance "Posthumanism”. So Posthumanism is a philosophical movement which is happening right now, which addresses the topic of the posthuman. We can also think of Transhumanism. Now, when I'm talking about Posthumanism
and Transhumanism, I don't think that they belong to specific movements. I should address them as Posthumanisms and Transhumanisms because each one is made and developed by very different schools of thought within. For instance, according to a Transhumanism, we have Democratic Transhumanism, we have Libertarian Transhumanism, we have Extropinism, with
singularity and so on. So, you can see already that this movement is not one but many -- that's why I'm talking about Transhumanisms. Although, all these schools of thought do share some of the same notions that we're going to see more deeply in the second video of this mini-series. What about Posthumanisms? Posthumanism is not one but many. We should refer to Posthumanisms. We can think of Critical Posthumanism. We can think of Cultural Posthumanism. We can think of Philosophical Posthumanism, among others and I'm going to refer to these other movements in the third part of this mini-series mini lecture. There are other movements here -- we can think of Antihumanism. As well, there are not one but many. There is a Marxist Antihumanism. There are many different types of Antihumanisms as well. We can think of New Materialism. We can think of Metahumanism and so on. Now, is this confusing? Yes, a little bit. Is this exciting? Of course it is. It is very exciting to reflect on a topic that is happening right now. Why are there are so many different groups of people thinking about this topic? Because the posthuman is the way that is redefining the notion of the human in the 21st century. So why does the notion of the human not really reflect anymore who we are in the 21st century?
We are going to talk about specifically the human as a notion that is open. So, all these movements share something in common. They share the idea that the human is a closed notion and does not reflect anymore who we are. The human is an open notion. You can think through the notion of evolution, for instance, and we can bring into the discussion Darwin. We can think of it as an open notion through technology, for instance, and the notion of the cyborg. This is a simple example. Think of someone with a pacemaker. We are talking about a human being who needs a piece of technology in order to survive. Now is this person a human? Yes, it is. Is this person a cyborg? On some level it is as well because we have some biology that needs some technology in order to survive. The term "cyborg" comes from two terms which are "cybernetic" on one side and on the other side, "organism."
We can think, for instance, of the ecology and the notion of the Anthropocene--the era in which we are living-- and the idea that the human is not disconnected from the biosphere and from ecology. Ecology comes from the Greek word "logos." the discourse “on” and "eco" come from "oikos," which refers to the house, home, or place we inhabit. So, on one side we are affecting the ecosphere. The Anthropocene shows clearly that human habits are affecting everything else. We are in relation to all the other species of the planet as a whole. On the other side, we are affected by the environment. Again, think to Darwin. Think to the notion of adaptation. So, our
adaptation is an important notion here. The fact that our species is as such because of planet Earth, because it has adapted to planet Earth.
So going back to our very interesting open scenario, we have many different schools of thought that are addressing the notion of the posthuman. We're going to go now into Transhumanism. What does this school of thought offer to the philosophical debate? On the video after that we are going to talk about Posthumanism.
My name is Francesca Fernanda. You can find more information about these topics on my website which is www.theposthuman.org
Thank you so much for your kind attention.
I'm a professor of philosophy here at NYU program of Liberal Studies and I'm a posthuman philosopher, that's why it's very exciting for me to share with you today the notion of the posthuman.
So, I'm going to address in this video the question “what does posthuman mean”?
Some of you might have found the term in an article or in a video or at a conference and maybe you have asked yourself “but what does posthuman mean”?
That's a very relevant question in the 21st century and is a question that can be addressed from a philosophical perspective in many different ways. Why is that? Because the posthuman is an umbrella term. Posthuman is an umbrella term that is defined by many different schools of thought in different ways. Which schools of thought we are referring to? Well there are many. On one side we can see, for instance "Posthumanism”. So Posthumanism is a philosophical movement which is happening right now, which addresses the topic of the posthuman. We can also think of Transhumanism. Now, when I'm talking about Posthumanism
and Transhumanism, I don't think that they belong to specific movements. I should address them as Posthumanisms and Transhumanisms because each one is made and developed by very different schools of thought within. For instance, according to a Transhumanism, we have Democratic Transhumanism, we have Libertarian Transhumanism, we have Extropinism, with
singularity and so on. So, you can see already that this movement is not one but many -- that's why I'm talking about Transhumanisms. Although, all these schools of thought do share some of the same notions that we're going to see more deeply in the second video of this mini-series. What about Posthumanisms? Posthumanism is not one but many. We should refer to Posthumanisms. We can think of Critical Posthumanism. We can think of Cultural Posthumanism. We can think of Philosophical Posthumanism, among others and I'm going to refer to these other movements in the third part of this mini-series mini lecture. There are other movements here -- we can think of Antihumanism. As well, there are not one but many. There is a Marxist Antihumanism. There are many different types of Antihumanisms as well. We can think of New Materialism. We can think of Metahumanism and so on. Now, is this confusing? Yes, a little bit. Is this exciting? Of course it is. It is very exciting to reflect on a topic that is happening right now. Why are there are so many different groups of people thinking about this topic? Because the posthuman is the way that is redefining the notion of the human in the 21st century. So why does the notion of the human not really reflect anymore who we are in the 21st century?
We are going to talk about specifically the human as a notion that is open. So, all these movements share something in common. They share the idea that the human is a closed notion and does not reflect anymore who we are. The human is an open notion. You can think through the notion of evolution, for instance, and we can bring into the discussion Darwin. We can think of it as an open notion through technology, for instance, and the notion of the cyborg. This is a simple example. Think of someone with a pacemaker. We are talking about a human being who needs a piece of technology in order to survive. Now is this person a human? Yes, it is. Is this person a cyborg? On some level it is as well because we have some biology that needs some technology in order to survive. The term "cyborg" comes from two terms which are "cybernetic" on one side and on the other side, "organism."
We can think, for instance, of the ecology and the notion of the Anthropocene--the era in which we are living-- and the idea that the human is not disconnected from the biosphere and from ecology. Ecology comes from the Greek word "logos." the discourse “on” and "eco" come from "oikos," which refers to the house, home, or place we inhabit. So, on one side we are affecting the ecosphere. The Anthropocene shows clearly that human habits are affecting everything else. We are in relation to all the other species of the planet as a whole. On the other side, we are affected by the environment. Again, think to Darwin. Think to the notion of adaptation. So, our
adaptation is an important notion here. The fact that our species is as such because of planet Earth, because it has adapted to planet Earth.
So going back to our very interesting open scenario, we have many different schools of thought that are addressing the notion of the posthuman. We're going to go now into Transhumanism. What does this school of thought offer to the philosophical debate? On the video after that we are going to talk about Posthumanism.
My name is Francesca Fernanda. You can find more information about these topics on my website which is www.theposthuman.org
Thank you so much for your kind attention.