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The Ahuman

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Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism
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Abstract

This chapter introduces key concepts and summarizes the Ahuman. Drawing from animal rights, known as abolitionist animal rights, as well as a foundation in feminism, queer, and other alterity studies, the Ahuman posits a new ethics in posthumanism. Other tenets of Ahumanism invoke artistic practice as central to activism being present in all posthuman practices, from science to philosophy, without assimilation or fetishization of nonhumans or nature. Founded in a merging of Continental Philosophy with ecofeminism, the Ahuman suggests some radical activist practices, including a call to veganism and a contemplation of human extinction as an opening of the liberty of the Earth and nonhuman occupants, albeit a slow, caring, and careful cessation of reproduction. What can humans do that is actively ethical in becoming posthuman without further devastation to the Earth, the minoritarian, and the nonhuman other? Ahumanism offers the impetus to creating escape routes for a better, less human but more flourishing Earth.

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Correspondence to A. Patricia MacCormack .

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MacCormack, A.P. (2022). The Ahuman. In: Herbrechter, S., Callus, I., Rossini, M., Grech, M., de Bruin-Molé, M., John Müller, C. (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04958-3_15

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