Hi everyone my name is Francesca Fernando I teach philosophy at NYU's program of Liberal Studies and I'm a philosopher of the posthuman.
So in this video we're going to address the second way Posthumanism as a movement can be defined. In my previous video I explained Posthumanism as a post-humanism in which we underline the fact that the human cannot be considered as one but many. It is a plural notion. In this video I am going to address the second the definition of Posthumanism, which is post-anthropocentrism.
First, I would like to clarify what "anthropos" means. "Anthropos" is a Greek world—in ancient Greek, "anthropos" means "human." Obviously we can see different terminology here. Humans come from "humanos," which is ancient Latin. The intellectual people in Rome at the time were very fascinated with Greek culture and they basically created the notion of the human based on the notion of "anthropos" in Greek. So that's why "anthropos" is definitely very relevant to us. If we're going back to ancient Greek and studying the notion of "anthropos," we're going to find something very interesting. The notion of "anthropos" at the time did not include every human. In fact, in order to be an entrepreneur, you had to be first of all a human. So obviously you could not be a dog or a cat--non-human animals would not be included on the other side. You could neither be a god or a goddess. So in order to be human you could not be a divine being--a god or a goddess--because at the time they were a polytheistic society. But the third category that closed the borders of the human is very interesting. In order to be "anthropos" you could not be barbarian. In fact, you had to be Greek and when we think of a barbarians according to the people of ancient Greece, we are referring to Muslims or Persians. The Persians, who at the time had a wonderful civilization, were not recognized by the Greeks because they were constantly in war and were considered "less than," as less-than-human. So we're going to find something very interesting for us and for our philosophical discourse here the notion of "anthropos," which is the base from where the notion of human comes from. It was already exclusive so was based on what it was not. So in order to be "anthropos," in order to be human, you could not be a god or a goddess; you could not be a non-human animal, and you could not be a barbarian. You had to be Greek. You had to be educated. "Paideia" is also an important notion here because in the Latin translation of "anthropos," hūmānus/hūmāna, the etymology of human, they had different declensions based on gender. This was likely based on Greek education--"Paideia."
We are going to see something very interesting. These separations actually kept repeating themselves in the social construction of the human. The etymological roots of human, beginning with "anthropos," are exclusivist; they are not inclusive. They exclude non-human animals, the divine realm, and also some humans who were considered not as humans but as "others." Obviously we can connect this third separation to our previous video in which we define the human as a plural, hierarchical notion according to which some humans have been considered more human than others. These systems were based on forms of discrimination such as sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, and so on.
Now there is another type of discrimination that is connected to the kind of separation between between human animals and non-human animals. We are talking about speciesism, which is discrimination based on the species to which you belong. This type of
discrimination is in direct connection to the formal way our geological area era is defined. We are actually living in the Anthropocene, which is connected to "anthropos." The Anthropocene is a specific geological era which was defined in 2000. It can be traced back to the second half of the 18th century, specifically with the Industrial Revolution. Since then, we have seen a direct impact of human
action on the biosphere, the planet, and the other non-human species. We are also living in the sixth mass extinction; there are thousands of species every year that get extinct because of human action. So the human is now redefined based on its relationship with
the environment as a mutual one. In the first video, we talked about the fact that ecology comes from "home" or "house." Darwin demonstrated that species adapt according to their environment. Now we see something very important: that the
human has a very direct impact on the environment.
So to summarize, in this age of Anthropocentrism, we need to decentralize the human and remove the human from the focus of the discourse. We cannot think anymore with the human at the center of everything. We are in the era of the Anthropocene, in which our actions are having a direct impact on all the other species, the biosphere, and the planet we inhabit.
In our next video we're going to talk about post-dualism how can we decentralize our location as a species and also as individuals.
It is my pleasure to talk about these topics with you. I'm very passionate about this, and you can find more information on my website
www.posthumans.org.
Thank you so much for your kind attention.
So in this video we're going to address the second way Posthumanism as a movement can be defined. In my previous video I explained Posthumanism as a post-humanism in which we underline the fact that the human cannot be considered as one but many. It is a plural notion. In this video I am going to address the second the definition of Posthumanism, which is post-anthropocentrism.
First, I would like to clarify what "anthropos" means. "Anthropos" is a Greek world—in ancient Greek, "anthropos" means "human." Obviously we can see different terminology here. Humans come from "humanos," which is ancient Latin. The intellectual people in Rome at the time were very fascinated with Greek culture and they basically created the notion of the human based on the notion of "anthropos" in Greek. So that's why "anthropos" is definitely very relevant to us. If we're going back to ancient Greek and studying the notion of "anthropos," we're going to find something very interesting. The notion of "anthropos" at the time did not include every human. In fact, in order to be an entrepreneur, you had to be first of all a human. So obviously you could not be a dog or a cat--non-human animals would not be included on the other side. You could neither be a god or a goddess. So in order to be human you could not be a divine being--a god or a goddess--because at the time they were a polytheistic society. But the third category that closed the borders of the human is very interesting. In order to be "anthropos" you could not be barbarian. In fact, you had to be Greek and when we think of a barbarians according to the people of ancient Greece, we are referring to Muslims or Persians. The Persians, who at the time had a wonderful civilization, were not recognized by the Greeks because they were constantly in war and were considered "less than," as less-than-human. So we're going to find something very interesting for us and for our philosophical discourse here the notion of "anthropos," which is the base from where the notion of human comes from. It was already exclusive so was based on what it was not. So in order to be "anthropos," in order to be human, you could not be a god or a goddess; you could not be a non-human animal, and you could not be a barbarian. You had to be Greek. You had to be educated. "Paideia" is also an important notion here because in the Latin translation of "anthropos," hūmānus/hūmāna, the etymology of human, they had different declensions based on gender. This was likely based on Greek education--"Paideia."
We are going to see something very interesting. These separations actually kept repeating themselves in the social construction of the human. The etymological roots of human, beginning with "anthropos," are exclusivist; they are not inclusive. They exclude non-human animals, the divine realm, and also some humans who were considered not as humans but as "others." Obviously we can connect this third separation to our previous video in which we define the human as a plural, hierarchical notion according to which some humans have been considered more human than others. These systems were based on forms of discrimination such as sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, and so on.
Now there is another type of discrimination that is connected to the kind of separation between between human animals and non-human animals. We are talking about speciesism, which is discrimination based on the species to which you belong. This type of
discrimination is in direct connection to the formal way our geological area era is defined. We are actually living in the Anthropocene, which is connected to "anthropos." The Anthropocene is a specific geological era which was defined in 2000. It can be traced back to the second half of the 18th century, specifically with the Industrial Revolution. Since then, we have seen a direct impact of human
action on the biosphere, the planet, and the other non-human species. We are also living in the sixth mass extinction; there are thousands of species every year that get extinct because of human action. So the human is now redefined based on its relationship with
the environment as a mutual one. In the first video, we talked about the fact that ecology comes from "home" or "house." Darwin demonstrated that species adapt according to their environment. Now we see something very important: that the
human has a very direct impact on the environment.
So to summarize, in this age of Anthropocentrism, we need to decentralize the human and remove the human from the focus of the discourse. We cannot think anymore with the human at the center of everything. We are in the era of the Anthropocene, in which our actions are having a direct impact on all the other species, the biosphere, and the planet we inhabit.
In our next video we're going to talk about post-dualism how can we decentralize our location as a species and also as individuals.
It is my pleasure to talk about these topics with you. I'm very passionate about this, and you can find more information on my website
www.posthumans.org.
Thank you so much for your kind attention.