Hi everyone my name is Francesca Ferrando I teach philosophy at NYU at the program of Liberal Studies and I'm very very excited to talk with you in this video about Posthumanism.
This is the third video miniseries about the posthuman. We talked in the first video about the notion of the posthuman itself. In the second video we addressed the philosophical movement of Transhumanism and we defined it as a plural Transhumanism. In this video we're going to address the notion of Posthumanism.
So in the first video we announced the fact that the posthuman is an umbrella term. It's a notion that is used by different schools of thought with different meanings. In the second one we explained that, according to the transhumanist movement, we are not posthuman yet. And in this in this video, the third video, we are going to declare that according to posthumanists: yes we can be already posthuman.
So according to Posthumanism, you don't need to worry. You don't have to wait until tomorrow to be posthuman; you can be posthuman now. Posthuman, in fact, according to Posthumanism, is an existential approach or a way to be part of existence, to look at the world. It's a perspective.
So, how do you become posthuman? In order to become posthuman you need to reflect very much on your location in this open network that is existence. Posthumanism, in fact, can be defined in three different ways. First is "post-humanism," and I'm going to address what this notion means in my next video. The second way to define Posthumanism is as "post-anthropocentrism" and I'm going to define post-anthropocentrism in my fifth video. And finally, to be posthuman you need to address existence from a post-dualistic perspective, which I'm going to define in my sixth video of this miniseries of the posthuman.
Now, let's go back to Posthumanism. Can we declare that we have one movement that is defined as Posthumanism? Yes, although in this case as well we need to add an "s" here so we have Posthumanisms: different movements that can be defined as Posthumanisms. For instance, we have Critical Posthumanism that comes from the field of critical theory. We have Cultural Posthumanism and we have Philosophical Posthumanism, among others. So, what is it that connects all these movements under the umbrella term of Posthumanism? One specific approach is the deconstruction of the human.
We already addressed the fact that the human itself is addressed by all these different schools of thought as an open frame, something that is not defined in a specific or fixed term. Think again, for instance, of evolution. We also talked about ecology and the Anthropocene. Now, how does Posthumanism address the notion of the human as an open frame? Well, according to Posthumanism we cannot think of the human as an open frame only in the future, as with the transhuman approach. Think of emerging technology--the human is something that has been redefined (i.e. the cyborg, cryonics, mind uploading) so it's not only of the future; it's not only of the present, but it's also of the past.
When did we become human? This is a relevant question because we are going to understand two different approaches: the fact that the human itself is a cultural notion and also a historical one. So, according to Posthumanism as a post-humanism, not every human being is being defined as human. For instance, you can think of the history of slavery, how some humans were considered less than
human, and there are many other cases in the histories of sexism, ethnocentrism, and disability. So some humans have been considered more human than others. Then we're going to address post-anthropocentrism. So this deconstruction of the human is not only done from an inner frame, so it's not only the human as many--humans--but is also approached from a frame that comes from the definition of the human itself. So, we're going to sit on Anthropocentrism. The notion of the human itself has been defined through the known human and usually this separation is being played and is being given as an exception to the human. So we are human because we are not non-human animals. But this separation was not neutral, we were considered superior because of this division. Anthropocentrism involves placing the human at the very top and this, of course, has some religious connection. We can think of the idea of the human as being created in the image of God, according to different religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. And then we're going to address the open notion of the human from a post-dualistic perspective, specifically through technology but more relevantly, technology from an educated perspective as a way of revealing. In here we're going to talk about technologies of existence.
So thank you so much for your kind interests. If you're interested in this topic you can find more information on my website which is www.theposthuman.org.
I'm looking forward to talking about post-humanism in my next video. Thank you so much.
This is the third video miniseries about the posthuman. We talked in the first video about the notion of the posthuman itself. In the second video we addressed the philosophical movement of Transhumanism and we defined it as a plural Transhumanism. In this video we're going to address the notion of Posthumanism.
So in the first video we announced the fact that the posthuman is an umbrella term. It's a notion that is used by different schools of thought with different meanings. In the second one we explained that, according to the transhumanist movement, we are not posthuman yet. And in this in this video, the third video, we are going to declare that according to posthumanists: yes we can be already posthuman.
So according to Posthumanism, you don't need to worry. You don't have to wait until tomorrow to be posthuman; you can be posthuman now. Posthuman, in fact, according to Posthumanism, is an existential approach or a way to be part of existence, to look at the world. It's a perspective.
So, how do you become posthuman? In order to become posthuman you need to reflect very much on your location in this open network that is existence. Posthumanism, in fact, can be defined in three different ways. First is "post-humanism," and I'm going to address what this notion means in my next video. The second way to define Posthumanism is as "post-anthropocentrism" and I'm going to define post-anthropocentrism in my fifth video. And finally, to be posthuman you need to address existence from a post-dualistic perspective, which I'm going to define in my sixth video of this miniseries of the posthuman.
Now, let's go back to Posthumanism. Can we declare that we have one movement that is defined as Posthumanism? Yes, although in this case as well we need to add an "s" here so we have Posthumanisms: different movements that can be defined as Posthumanisms. For instance, we have Critical Posthumanism that comes from the field of critical theory. We have Cultural Posthumanism and we have Philosophical Posthumanism, among others. So, what is it that connects all these movements under the umbrella term of Posthumanism? One specific approach is the deconstruction of the human.
We already addressed the fact that the human itself is addressed by all these different schools of thought as an open frame, something that is not defined in a specific or fixed term. Think again, for instance, of evolution. We also talked about ecology and the Anthropocene. Now, how does Posthumanism address the notion of the human as an open frame? Well, according to Posthumanism we cannot think of the human as an open frame only in the future, as with the transhuman approach. Think of emerging technology--the human is something that has been redefined (i.e. the cyborg, cryonics, mind uploading) so it's not only of the future; it's not only of the present, but it's also of the past.
When did we become human? This is a relevant question because we are going to understand two different approaches: the fact that the human itself is a cultural notion and also a historical one. So, according to Posthumanism as a post-humanism, not every human being is being defined as human. For instance, you can think of the history of slavery, how some humans were considered less than
human, and there are many other cases in the histories of sexism, ethnocentrism, and disability. So some humans have been considered more human than others. Then we're going to address post-anthropocentrism. So this deconstruction of the human is not only done from an inner frame, so it's not only the human as many--humans--but is also approached from a frame that comes from the definition of the human itself. So, we're going to sit on Anthropocentrism. The notion of the human itself has been defined through the known human and usually this separation is being played and is being given as an exception to the human. So we are human because we are not non-human animals. But this separation was not neutral, we were considered superior because of this division. Anthropocentrism involves placing the human at the very top and this, of course, has some religious connection. We can think of the idea of the human as being created in the image of God, according to different religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. And then we're going to address the open notion of the human from a post-dualistic perspective, specifically through technology but more relevantly, technology from an educated perspective as a way of revealing. In here we're going to talk about technologies of existence.
So thank you so much for your kind interests. If you're interested in this topic you can find more information on my website which is www.theposthuman.org.
I'm looking forward to talking about post-humanism in my next video. Thank you so much.
