Humanism, Anti-Humanism, and Post-Humanism

Les socialismes africains ou la reconquête de l’homme

by Norman Ajari

Comunità, immunità, apertura verso l’alterità: una biopolitica affermativa e oltre-umana?

by Giacomo Pezzano

Published in "Trópos. Rivista di ermeneutica e critica filosofica”, IV, 2, 2011, pp. 167-184

Roberto Esposito claims that biopolitics characterizes the entire modernity, and that it is built on the immunity... more Roberto Esposito claims that biopolitics characterizes the entire modernity, and that it is built on the immunity dispositive. Im-munity is the negation of the munus which animates and builds com-munity: inside the immunitarian paradigm, thinking politics and ontology is considering men as ab-solutes beings, without any kind of engagement to each other, inhabited by a vacuum to deny. Esposito believes this means shaping an anthropological paradigm (systematized by philosophical anthropology in the 20th century) in which man is thought to be distinct from the animal since he is capable of denying his own nature and, more generally, his relationship with the world and the other beings – that is, a paradigm in which community has no ‘positive’ place. In order to overcome the immunitarian paradigm, we need to define the outlines of an affirmative biopolitics, a politics ‘of ’ life and not ‘on’ life. This biopolitical shift requires the understanding of the ‘flow of life,’ of its everlasting and unprotected openness: Esposito claims that life is impersonal and intrinsically normative, over-human and perpetually exposed to the ‘outside.’ Finally, this perspective leaves open a crucial question: can over-man exist without man?

L’appuntamento segreto. Un umanesimo etnografico per tornare a casa

by Alessandro Gaudio

Humanismo antes del Humanismo: filología y exégesis racionalista en al-Andalus

by Salvador Peña

Published in 'Estudios de humanismo español', edited by M.Á. Moreno, Ayntamiento de Baeza, 2007, pp. 975-992.

Het verdwijnen van de mens

by J Ligthart

Bachelorscriptie Humanistiek.

Deze scriptie analyseert de waarde en houdbaarheid van postmoderne kritiek op het humanisme als levensbeschouwing.... more Deze scriptie analyseert de waarde en houdbaarheid van postmoderne kritiek op het humanisme als levensbeschouwing. Foucault wordt hierbij als representant van deze kritiek beschouwd. Hoofdstuk 1 bevat een beschrijving van de geschiedenis en huidige verschijningsvormen van het humanisme, hoofdstuk 2 analyseert de kritiek en problematische verhouding van Foucault t.o.v het humanisme. In hoofdstuk 3 worden drie hedendaagse denkers besproken die deze kritiek hernemen en het humanisme hernieuwde status proberen te geven: Sloterdijk, Kunneman en Vanheste. Hoofdstuk 4 bestaat uit een conclusie en aanbevelingen.

Witnessing the Inhuman: Agamben or Merleau-Ponty?

by Jean-Philippe Deranty

Translator. "The Defining Element of the Humanist Literary Generes in the 16th Century" by Francisco Garrote Perez, South Atlantic Review: The Journal of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association 72.1 (2007): 8-30.

by Laura Barberan Reinares

"(RE)PERFORMING THE POSTHUMAN" - Conferenza sulle Arti Postumane e sul Postumanesimo

by Francesca Ferrando

Published in Bollettino di Filosofia, Universita' di Roma Tre, Settembre 2010

Il 21-22 maggio 2010 si è svolto presso l'Universitá di Sussex (Brighton, Inghilterra), un Convegno sul Postumanesimo... more Il 21-22 maggio 2010 si è svolto presso l'Universitá di Sussex (Brighton, Inghilterra), un Convegno sul Postumanesimo e sulle Arti Postumane, per riflettere sui risvolti artistici di una tematica filosofica di grande attualitá, che segue, storicamente, l'ampio dibattito sulla Teoria Cyborg degli anni Novanta.

PHD SYMPOSIUM “ANDROID AND EVE" - Tra biologia, medicina, tecnologia e… filosofia

by Francesca Ferrando

Published in Babel Rivista di Filosofia, Universita' di Roma Tre 2010

12-13 Novembre 2009. Si tiene a Vienna il Simposio rivolto ai PhD di tutto il mondo che si occupano di tematiche a... more 12-13 Novembre 2009. Si tiene a Vienna il Simposio rivolto ai PhD di tutto il mondo che si occupano di tematiche a cavallo tra biologia, medicina e tecnologia.
Il titolo è “Android & Eve”, un’interessante commistione di futuro interpretato al maschile (il femminile di “android” è “gynoid”), e di passato biblico-mitologico al femminile (Eva, la madre primigenia e curiosa)..

Human all too Inhuman: Levinas, de Man and the question of the Other

by Adi Drori-Avraham

draft only

The question of ethics posits, at its core, an idea of the other. But what is this other? What is it made of? What is... more The question of ethics posits, at its core, an idea of the other. But what is this other? What is it made of? What is the meaning of its power over the human subject? The paper looks at the idea of otherness as its appears in Levinas and Paul de Man – two thinkers who share a fascination with radical exteriority but could not disagree more on its meaning – and its implication on the question of freedom. With Walter Benjamin in supporting role.

“China as Humanist Exemplum.”

by Daniel Vukovich

forthcoming in Cultural Politics: an International Journal, in July 2012 issue.

email/msg me for a ms draft before then if you'd like

This essay addresses the ‘demand for humanism, with a nod towards Asia’ (Spivak) within current theory and global... more This essay addresses the ‘demand for humanism, with a nod towards Asia’ (Spivak) within current theory and global intellectual political culture. I argue that using humanism as a way to understand China (a habit inside and especially outside the PRC) keeps us within the orientalist tradition; it is also at odds with China's attempted/failed/ongoing revolution and trajectory since 1949. I offer an interdisciplinary analysis of area studies and other representations of China, especially in regard to Tiananmen and the Cultural Revolution. I then contrast this with current intellectual debates in China as well as with an older Maoist or revolutionary discourse. The resurgence or ‘demand’ for humanism is rendered as part of an intellectual and political backlash or de-politicization.

Keywords:
Orientalism; China; humanism; Maoism; theory

Critical Perspectives on Humanism in Postwar Science Fiction

by Luke Goaman-Dodson

Structure, Sense and Territory

by Michael Austin

Published in Speculations Vol. II.

This paper attempts to show the importance of 'communication' for contemporary continental metaphysics. In opposition... more This paper attempts to show the importance of 'communication' for contemporary continental metaphysics. In opposition to the metaphysical descendants of structuralism (notably Badiou and Žižek), the author presents a "semiotic" metaphysical tradition. Through an examination of the work of C.S. Peirce and Michel Serres, the author proposes a new direction for contemporary metaphysicians which takes seriously the concepts of communication and structure.

Immediation|Toward the Selfless Other?

by Tony Richards

Looks into the pre-conceptual frameworks operating behind the desire for implanting certain subcutaneous technologies... more Looks into the pre-conceptual frameworks operating behind the desire for implanting certain subcutaneous technologies and the attendant paradoxes of the desire for the reduction of difference, excess, the remainder, etc. The study mainly focuses in on the cybernetic work of Prof. Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading Cybernetics Laboratory. The study looks at these from a predominantly deconstructive perspective (also drawing on Derrida, Bataille, Levinas, Heidegger and Uexküll). Questions of the animal-human divide are broached together with a critique of Haraway's use of proto-christian responsibility as something to heal that wound.

POSTUMANESIMO TRA ARTE E FILOSOFIA - Conferenza Internazionale sul Postumanesimo

by Francesca Ferrando

Published in Bollettino di Filosofia, Universita' di Roma Tre, November 2010

Dal 23 al 27 settembre Lesbos ha ospitato la Conferenza Internazionale sul Postumanesimo: “Audiovisual Posthumanism.... more Dal 23 al 27 settembre Lesbos ha ospitato la Conferenza Internazionale sul Postumanesimo: “Audiovisual Posthumanism. Aesthetics, Cultural Theory and the Art”, organizzata dall'Universitá dell'Egeo insieme all'Eurosa (The European Society for Aesthetics). Cinque giorni di sessioni mattutine, pomeridiane e performance serali, ospitate presso il Museo Archeologico: un perfetto invito lacaniano a riflettere sul ruolo dell'umano...
Molti i nodi tematici affrontati. Innanzitutto la differenza tra Postumanesimo e Transumanesimo - che crea spesso confusione - è stata interpretata e discussa da svariati punti di vista: teorico, artistico, storico.

"Conscious Learning and Learning to be Conscious: A Position Paper for Transcultural Global Education"

by Gregory Nixon

@ *Journal of Interdisciplinary Education: Curriculum Opportunities for Fostering Peace in a Diverse Global Community* 9 (1), 2010, 135-147.

In this putative “position paper,” I review the necessity of a global form of education by addressing the global and... more In this putative “position paper,” I review the necessity of a global form of education by addressing the global and human crisis we are in. I note that many postmodern and multicultural approaches deny there are universal human values or that individuals can rise above their cultural traditions, either of which renders hopeless any attempt to meet this crisis through global education. Instead, I insist that there are a)universal values and b)identifiable stages of individual conscious development, the higher of which allows for a planetary (i.e., transcultural and transnational) perspective. It is my contention that the above makes decolonized global education (as espoused by groups such as the WCCI) desirable and necessary.