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Abstract

The main objective of the article is to present a preliminary contextualization of transhumanism on the basis of some of the classical motifs in social theory. In the first section, I critically refer to the most popular definitions of transhumanism and comment on some of the inherent discrepancies within its own techno-progressive agenda. In the second section, I briefly scrutinize some of the critical reactions against the concept of biotechnological human enhancement with regard to its paradoxical appeal to religion, its ambivalent stance towards education, and to the concept of human nature. Finally, I confront the cultural implications of transhumanism by applying Émile Durkheim’s critique of modern humanism as well as Peter L. Berger’s and Thomas Luckmann’s theory of symbolic universes. In general, I interpret transhumanism as an anthropological paradigm shift that entails a cultural recentering of late-modern societies on the basis of a new, technology-centered symbolic universe.
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Bibliography

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Authors and Affiliations

Markus Lipowicz
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Jagiellonian University
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Abstract

This polemic discusses two problematic aspects to the claim of a paradigmatic shift to the new technology-centered symbolic universe, as understood by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.
The first problematic aspect is connected to the status quo ante transhumanism (before the postulated paradigmatic shift). By discussing cases from pre-modernity and peak modernity, I point out that the discussed claim does not provide satisfactory understanding of the role of technology in society. My counter-argument is built on cases of technoreligious institutions such as abbeys and rocketry research theoretical circles, using works by David Noble as the starting point.
The second problematic aspect goes back to the fundamentals of Berger and Luckmann’s concept and its relation to ontology. The discussed proposal mixed this framework with the concept of culture from the Margaret Archer system, which led to a shift in ontological positioning. In effect, some preliminaries about the materiality and dynamics of Berger-Luckmann dialectics are harder to trace in the proposal. This results in problems of operationalization and loss of useful theoretical dialogue with post-constructivist tradition.
In the last part of the paper, I sketch other possibilities and challenges for post Berger-Luckman applications in the case of transhumanism and late modernity.

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Authors and Affiliations

Marcin Zaród
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet Warszawski
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Abstract

The article presents a new interpretation of the concept of a Russian thinker that emerged at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was fanned by Nikolai Fyodorov, who is now considered one of the forerunners of Western transhumanism. The concept of the religion of technology, taken from David Noble, is a thread that unites the unsystematic, incomprehensible, even irrational thought of the Russian philosopher. The article is written in the form of a polemic with the generally accepted interpretation of this idea, which was proposed by the Polish historian of philosophy Andrzej Walicki. The issue of the opposition of the ideas of secularism and postsecularism is crucial to this polemics.
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Authors and Affiliations

Halina Rarot
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Politechnika Lubelska, Wydział Podstaw Techniki, ul. Nadbystrzycka 38, 20‑618 Lublin
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Abstract

Inspired by H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau, M. Renard in his Le Docteur Lerne, sous-dieu (1908) portrays a mad scientist experimenting on living organisms, creating hybrids of humans, animals and plants. Renard extends the anachronistic theory of the Chain of Being to include machines, which he sees as the future of humanity, securing the place of his Lerne in the vanguard of transumanist literature. This paper aims to examine the novel’s intertextual references to both fictional and actual history of science.

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Authors and Affiliations

Marta Sukiennicka

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