Transhumanism and Philosophy of Technology

Abstract

At first glance, transhumanism may seem to be a proper framework for interpreting technological advancement, because of its positive attitude towards innovation, and especially when opposed to “technophobic” movements. Nevertheless, in the first part of this chapter it is demonstrated how the transhumanist premises are wrong, and how the movement itself represents, just as much as technophobic approaches, an extreme derivative of the Modern Western tradition. Specifically, the criticism is focused on the propensity of transhumanism to read the technological otherness from a utilitarian perspective, as a way to emancipate our species from the realm of nature. Instead, the aim of the second part is to offer a radical revision of the traditionally dichotomous relationship between “nature” and “culture”, from which the transhumanist positions stem. In doing so, the chapter draws on different and more ontologically inclusive conceptual perspectives, namely the ones on which critical posthumanism is grounded. As a result, technology comes to play a new active role in the process of “shaping the human”. Eventually, rather than being just a tool at our disposal, technology and technique are read as being a “species peculiar” pillar, and thus part of our very nature.