Open access
TRANS-, POST - / -HUMANISM, -HUMAN
Ewa M. WALEWSKA1
Human Life – Transformations of Culture
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Transformations No. 3-4 (70-71) 2011, Publication date: 17 October 2011
Abstract The human desire to gain new abilities is as old as our species itself. To acquire extraordinary abilities, superhuman strength, indestructible and impervious to diseases body, to eliminate suffering and ageing, finally to become immortal are the humans` oldest dreams. Nowadays these dreams become true thanks to the transhumanism ideology. Transumanism derives from the ideas of self-improvement and rationality inherited from humanism but what makes it different is its agreement, even expectation for radical changes in the human nature, human abilities and prolongation of human life. Transhuman or transitional human, leads us to the vision of the posthuman - a fulfillment of the oldest dreams of humanity. The term "posthumanism" is often interpreted in two ways – antihumanistic and futurological. However, it is always about how inadequate the traditional vision of human being are. With the ideologies of trans- and posthumanism come many controversies and ethical dilemmas. There are many strictures about the radical changes in human mind and body, which divide a society and scientists in two groups: pro and contra such transformation
Instytut Nauk o Kulturze, Wydział Filologiczny Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach
E-mail: ewa_walewska@o2.pl