The Personalist Alternative to Posthumanism and Anthropocentric Humanism
摘要
My aim in this essay is to present Personalism as a choice-worthy alternative to the two main variants of Posthumanism: Transhumanism (TH) and Critical Posthumanism (CPH). Because Personalism has been largely forgotten in mainstream academic philosophy, I begin with a brief overview of the Personalist tradition, explaining how it developed, what it taught, and why it’s important. I then explore the relationship of Personalism to TH and CPH, and the reasons for preferring Personalism. This includes attention to the role of phenomenology in both Personalism and CPH: as we shall see, Personalism’s relationship to realist phenomenology puts it at odds with CPH, which emerged from a different and incompatible variant of the phenomenological tradition. Ultimately, I argue that the chances of either variant of Posthumanism making a net-positive contribution to the world are slim, given the track record of liberationist movements that share their respective lineages and core theoretical orientations. On the other hand, Personalism’s track record makes it a better bet for improving the world in many ways, including some of the main ways that Posthumanists care about.