Introduction: A New Human Emerges from Ecological Disaster

Abstract

“Interesting philosophy is rarely an examination of the pros and cons of a thesis. Usually it is, implicitly or explicitly, a contest between an entrenched vocabulary which has become a nuisance and a half-formed new vocabulary which promises great things” (Rorty, 1989, p. 9). Although Richard Rorty here speaks explicitly about ways of speaking, he clearly describes philosophy’s simplest and most profound purpose: developing new ways to be human. Ecology, Ethics, and the Future of Humanity is part of a series on posthumanist thought, and it is also a critique of the prevailing trends of writing that identifies itself as posthumanist or transhumanist. My critique is not an explicit argument with any writers and thinkers in the field, simply a statement. A new paradigm of humanity will only be effective if it resolves a practical problem. Transhumanism for the sake of transformation alone is little more than an empty philosophical masturbation. This book discusses a new conception of humanity that is emerging from the problem of our planetary ecological crisis.