Abstract
This article wishes to unveil the relevance of spirituality in the genealogy of Cultural, Critical and Philosophical Posthumanism. In its genealogical endeavor, this article expands the lens of the posthuman outside of Western academia, to Eastern traditions of thought such as Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoga and Tantrism. This article wishes to recognize the important contribution of different spiritual traditions in the development of Posthuman Studies. In order to do so, it first provides an introduction to the topic of Posthumanism and spirituality. Secondly, it highlights ancient spiritual traditions which are in tune with the posthuman approach; lastly, it elaborates on the development of the spiritual politics of the posthuman, by emphasizing the relevance of Posthumanism as a contemporary philosophy of life. This article argues that spirituality, in its all-encompassing signification, corresponds to the core meaning of the posthuman post-dualistic perspective. In this sense, humans have always been posthuman. And still, this article also wishes to emphasize that no specific tradition can be regarded as fully representative of the posthuman, as most of these traditional systems of thought, once systematized, have adapted to the anthropocentric paradigm. This is why, although Posthumanism is deeply indebted to the spiritual realm, its offerings are unique, original and very much needed. In the age of the Anthropocene, Posthumanism is required to develop daily ethics of living based on an integral investment of its post-anthropocentric premises. The notion of spirituality helps us answer these questions, as it dramatically broadens our understanding of the posthuman, allowing us to investigate not only technical technologies (robotics, cybernetics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, among others), but also, technologies of existence. In this sense, we have always been posthuman.
Be free from all dualities
—Bhagavad-Gita, Text 45
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Notes
- 1.
Note that Braidotti developed such a concept in contrast to the zoē/bios divide set by Agamben (1995). Rosi Braidotti underlines the political and social implications of such a dualism, echoing the hierarchies enacted by other structural pairs, such as female/male, nature/culture, black/white. As she notes in ‘Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics’ (2006): “Life is half-animal, nonhuman (zoe) and half political and discursive (bios). Zoe is the poor half of a couple that foregrounds bios as the intelligent half; the relationship between them constitutes one of those qualitative distinctions on which Western culture built its discursive empire” (p. 37).
- 2.
For an understanding of the notion of strings, see note 5.
- 3.
Think of the success of the conference ‘Science & Nonduality’, according to which:
The Mission of ‘Science & Nonduality’ (SAND) is to forge a new paradigm in spirituality, one that is not dictated by religious dogma, but that is rather based on timeless wisdom traditions of the world, informed by cutting-edge science, and grounded in direct experience. (scienceandnonduality.org)
- 4.
Heidegger, M. (1953) The Question Concerning Technology.
- 5.
Atoms were thought to be the building blocks of matter until early twentieth century, when, passing from the Bohr model (1913) to James Chadwick’s atomic one (1932), it was discovered that they were also composite, made of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Then again, these models were discovered to be composed of still smaller particles, named ‘quarks’, which were independently proposed in 1964 by two American physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig. In the late 1960s, this model was again redefined by String Theory. On the history of modern physics, see, among others, Heilbron (2005).
- 6.
It is interesting to note that the Latin words species and speculum (mirror) derive both from specere.
- 7.
Sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998) developed his systems theory from Maturana and Varela’s notion of autopoiesis.
- 8.
Shortly before his death in 1984, Foucault mentioned his idea of working on a book on the technologies of the self. In 1988, the book ‘Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault’ was published pos-mortem, based on a seminar Foucault had originally presented at the University of Vermont in 1982.
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Ellen Delahunty Roby, Thomas Roby, Renata Prato, Ugo Ferrando, Alisa and Remi Trumpele-Gletsos.
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Ferrando, F. (2016). Humans Have Always Been Posthuman: A Spiritual Genealogy of Posthumanism. In: Banerji, D., Paranjape, M. (eds) Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures . Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3637-5_15
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