Transhumanism and posthumanism: dehumanization plans

Abstract

The article analyzes the ideas of transhumanism and posthumanism, which appeal to new discoveries in the field of biomedical, information, cognitive and nanotechnology (NBIC-convergent technologies) in order to declare the possibility of their application in the issue of human «improvement». The relevance of the study lies in the fact that human transgression is carried out in line with the analyzed lines of thought, which indicates their anti-humanistic nature. This requires study, reasoned criticism and an appeal to positive humanistic concepts as a counterweight to anti-humanism. In the mainstream of transhumanism, a person is understood not as a concept, but as a construct, as a certain set of properties and components with varying degrees of reliability and value. The human mind is considered the most valuable, while the biological organization of a person is defined as flawed, and therefore requires intervention and correction, and in the future, a person should generally give way to a posthuman. The article provides a reasoned criticism of these ideas. The purpose of the article is to identify both the positive and negative sides of transhumanism and posthumanism, as well as to criticize the methodological foundations of these areas of thought – technicism and reductionism. Posthumanism does not require setting the limits of the existence of human civilization, like transhumanism, but here a person is viewed from an anti-anthropocentric point of view, that is, as a being without value, and no different from everything that exists in the world. The article shows that such ideas contradict both ideas about the evolution of nature and ideas about society and the system of human values. It is unacceptable to dissolve a person in the world of things, plants and animals. This contradicts both the history of nature and the history of mankind. In this study, such research methods as the method of historical and philosophical analysis and the method of comparison are used. The novelty of the research consists in comparing the positions and basic ideas of transhumanism and posthumanism, which makes it possible to identify their continuity in the development of anti-humanistic attitudes and to give a reasoned criticism of these directions.

Keywords

• transhumanism
• posthumanism
• nbic-convergent technologies
• posthuman
• dehumanization
• technicism
• reductionism