Sapere aude in the time of posthumanism
Abstract
The paper debates about humanism and posthumanism in such a way that humanism is not perceived as an oppositional term to posthumanism, but as an original one, which will come to the fore in the argument that it was humanism, and later the Enlightenment, that provided the foundations for the critical reflection of posthumanism. Guided by the modernity of Kant’s Enlightenment thought, this work aims to offer an affirmative framework of Kant’s moral philosophy, which is further considered to offer good guidelines for critical thinking of posthumanist and transhumanist times. Such an undertaking also requires an insight into what posthumanism is in general, so the paper, except short introduction, will contain three parts, and its first part will be devoted to an introduction to posthumanist thought. The second part of the paper will contain a preliminary analysis of Kant’s answer to the question of what enlightenment is, and then an analysis of concepts that form the core of Kant’s moral philosophy, such as dignity, autonomy, will and freedom as guidelines in the ethical consideration of increasingly rapidly growing technology. Third and final part will affirm Kant’s critical moral philosophy and the ability to judge as an auxiliary tool for the enlightenment of the technological invasion, opposing the utilitarian ethical position.
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