Posthumanism
Samenvatting
This timely book examines the rise of posthumanism as both a material condition and a developing philosophical–ethical project in the age of cloning, gene engineering, organ transplants and implants.
Nayar first maps the political and philosophical critiques of traditional humanism, revealing its exclusionary and speciesist politics that position the human as a distinctive and dominant life form. He then contextualizes the posthumanist vision which, drawing upon biomedical, engineering and techno–scientific studies, concludes that human consciousness is shaped by its co–evolution with other life forms, and our human form inescapably influenced by tools and technology. Finally the book explores posthumanism s roots in disability studies, animal studies and bioethics to underscore the constructed nature of normalcy in bodies, and the singularity of species and life itself.
As this book powerfully demonstrates, posthumanism marks a radical reassessment of the human as constituted by symbiosis, assimilation, difference and dependence upon and with other species. Mapping the terrain of these far–reaching debates,
Posthumanism will be an invaluable companion to students of cultural studies and modern and contemporary literature.
Specificaties
Inhoudsopgave
<br /> Acknowledgements
<br /> 1. Revisiting the Human: Critical Humanisms
<br /> Terms and Definitions
<br /> Critical Humanisms and the Origins of Posthumanism
<br /> 2. Consciousness, Biology and the Necessity of Alterity
<br /> Cognition, Consciousness and Autopoiesis
<br /> Biology, Systems and Systems Biology
<br /> Dealing with/in Alterity
<br /> 3. The Body, Reformatted
<br /> Biomedia, the Body Mathematized and Postvital Life
<br /> Other/ing Bodies
<br /> The Body as Congeries, Assemblage and Interface
<br /> 4. Absolute Monstrosities: The Question of the Animal
<br /> Monster Theory: Cultures of Otherness
<br /> Animal Nature, Human Nature
<br /> The Humanimal
<br /> Speciesism
<br /> 5. Life Itself: The View from Disability Studies and Bioethics
<br /> Disability Studies and the Norms of the Human
<br /> Bioethics and Personhood
<br /> 6. Posthuman Visions: Toward Companion Species
<br /> Posthuman Biology
<br /> Posthumanist Biology
<br /> Companion Species
<br /> Conclusion: Posthumanism as Species Cosmopolitanism
<br /> Bibliography
<br /> Index