From Transhumanist’s Morphological Freedom to Posthuman Corporeality: Convergences and Divergences

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2020.063.02

Keywords:

Corporeality, mind uploading, morphological freedom, philosophical posthumanism, transhumanism

Abstract


Transhumanism and philosophical posthumanism have paid special attention to human corporeality in relation to technological breakthroughs. This article begins by pointing out how the two movements differ significantly about the inheritance of humanism. Subsequently, the transhumanist notion of ‘morphological freedom’ is addressed from the proposals of More, Sandberg, and Bostrom. Then, paradigmatic cases of body modifications through cybernetic implants are considered. Finally, the issues of identity, corporeality, and the disagreement between the two currents regarding ‘mind uploading’ are problematized.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Balsamo, A. (1995). "Forms of technological embodiment: reading the body in contemporary culture". Body & Society, Vol. 1, Nº 3-4, 215-237. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250198.n13

Bamford, S. y Danaher, J. (2017). "Transfer of personality to a synthetic human ('mind uploading') and the social construction of identity". Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 24, Nº 11-12, 6-30.

Becker, B. (2000). "Cyborgs, agents and transhumanists. Crossing traditional borders of body and identity in the context of new technology". Leonardo, Vol. 33, Nº 5, 361-365. https://doi.org/10.1162/002409400552838

Berlin, I. (1958). "Dos conceptos de libertad". En Berlin, I. (2017) Sobre la libertad. Edición de Henry Hardy. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 205-255.

Bostrom, N. (2003). "Human genetic enhancement: A transhumanist perspective". The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 37, Nº 4, 493-506. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:INQU.0000019037.67783.d5 PMid::17340768

Bostrom, N. (2005a). "In defense of posthuman dignity". Bioethics, Vol. 19, Nº 3, 202-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2005.00437.x PMid::16167401

Bostrom, N. (2005b). "A history of transhumanist thought". Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol. 14, Nº 1, 1-25.

Bostrom, N. (2008). "Why I want to be a posthuman when I grow up". En Gordijn, B. y Chadwick, R. (Eds.). Medical enhancement and posthumanism. Dordrecht: Springer, 107-136. Reeditado en More, M. y Vita-More, N. (Eds.). The transhumanist reader. Classical and contemporary essays on the science, technology, and philosophy of the human future. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 28-53. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555927.ch3

Bourdieu, P. (1986). "Notas provisionales sobre la percepción social del cuerpo". En Álvarez-Uría, F. y Varela, J. (Eds.). Materiales de sociología crítica. Madrid: La Piqueta, 183-194.

Bradshaw, H. G. y Meulen, Ruud ter (2010). "A transhumanist fault line around disability: morphological freedom and the obligation to enhance". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Vol. 35, 670-684. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhq048 PMid::21076073

Braidotti, R. (2013). Lo posthumano. Barcelona: Gedisa, 2015.

Budgeon, S. (2003). "Identity as an embodied event". Body & Society, Vol. 9, Nº 1, 35-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X030091003

Clark, A. (2007). "Re-inventing ourselves: the plasticity of embodiment, sensing, and mind". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Vol. 32, Nº 3, 263-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/03605310701397024 PMid::17613705

Constant, B. (1819). "Discurso de la libertad de los antiguos comparada con la de los modernos". En Constant, B. Escritos políticos, Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1989, 257-285.

della Mirandola, G. P. (1486). Discurso sobre la dignidad del hombre. Medellín: Editorial Pi, 2006.

Diéguez, A. (2017). Transhumanismo. La búsqueda tecnológica del mejoramiento humano. Barcelona: Herder.

Dolezal, L. (2016). "Morphological Freedom and Medicine: Constructing the Posthuman Body". En Whitehead, A., Woods, A., Atkinson, S., Macnaughton, J. y Richards, J. (Eds.). The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 310-324.

Farnell, R. (1999). "In dialogue with 'posthuman' bodies: Interview with Sterlac". Body & Society, Vol. 5, Nº 2-3, 129-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X99005002008

Featherstone, M. (1999). "Body modification: An introduction". Body & Society, Vol. 5, Nº 2-3, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X99005002001

Ferrando, F. (2013). "Posthumanism, transhumanism, antihumanism, metahumanism, and new materialism: Differences and relations". Existenz. An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts, Vol. 8, Nº 2, 26-32.

Ferrando, F. (2014). "The body". En Ranisch, R. y Sorgner, S. L. (Eds.). Post- and transhumanism. An Introduction. Fráncfort de Meno: Peter Lang, 213-226.

Foucault, M. (1966). Las palabras y las cosas, Madrid: Siglo XXI Editores, 2010.

Fukuyama, F. (2002). Our posthuman future. Consequences of the biotechnology revolution. Nueva York: Picador.

Gane, N. (2006). "When we have never been human, what is to be done? Interview with Donna Haraway." Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 23, Nº 7-8, 135-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276406069228

Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women. The reinvention of nature. London: Free Association Books.

Haraway, D. (2015). "Antropocene, capitalocene, plantationocene, chthulucene: Making kin". Environmental Humanities, Vol. 6, Nº 1, 159-165. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3615934

Halberstam, J. y Livingston, I. (Eds.) (1995). Posthuman bodies. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Hayles, K. N. (1999). How we became posthuman. Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226321394.001.0001

Kymlicka, W. (1995). Ciudadanía multicultural. Una teoría multicultural de los derechos de las minorías. Barcelona: Paidós, 1996.

Martorell Campos, F. (2012). "Al infierno los cuerpos: el transhumanismo y el giro postmoderno de la utopía". Thémata. Revista de Filosofía, Vol. 46, 489-496.

Mill, J. S. (1859). Sobre la libertad. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1984.

Molinuevo, J. L. (2004). Humanismo y nuevas tecnologías. Madrid: Alianza.

More, M. (1993). "Technological self-transformation. Expanding personal extropy". Extropy, #10, Winter/Spring, Vol. 4, No. 2, 15-24. Disponible en: http://www.maxmore.com/writing.htm

More, M. (2013). "The philosophy of transhumanism". En More, M. y Vita-More, N. (Eds.). The transhumanist reader. Classical and contemporary essays on the science, technology, and philosophy of the human future. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555927.ch1

Moreno Pestaña, J. L. (2016). La cara oscura del capital erótico. Capitalización del cuerpo y trastornos alimentarios. Madrid: Akal.

Renbold, S. (2014). "'Human enhancement'? It's all about 'body modification'! Why we should replace the term 'human enhancement' with 'body modification'". Nanoethics, Vol. 8, Nº 3, 307-315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-014-0205-y

Rodríguez-López, B. (2021). "Mejora estética: Cenicienta o prototipo". En Lara, F. y Savulescu, J. (Eds.). Más (que) humanos. Biotecnología, inteligencia artificial y ética de la mejora. Madrid: Tecnos, en prensa.

Sandberg, A. (2001). "Morphological freedom - Why we not just want it, but need it". En More, M. y Vita-More, N. (Eds.). The transhumanist reader. Classical and contemporary essays on the science, technology, and philosophy of the human future. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 56-64. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555927.ch5

Sandberg, A. y Bostrom, N. (2008). Whole brain emulation: A roadmap. Informe técnico #2008-3, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University.

Sandberg, A. y Diéguez, A. (2015). "Una mirada al futuro de la tecnología y del ser humano. Entrevista con Anders Sandberg". Contrastes. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, Vol. 20, Nº 2, 373-390. https://doi.org/10.24310/Contrastescontrastes.v20i2.2334

Tatchell, J. (2015). "Making human rights fit for the 21st century: The challenge of morphological freedom". Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, Vol. 4, Nº 8, 34-39.

VVAA (2012). "Transhumanist declaration". En More y Vita-More (Eds.). The transhumanist reader. Classical and contemporary essays on the science, technology, and philosophy of the human future. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 54-55. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555927.ch4

Waldby, C. (2000). The visible human project. Informatic bodies and posthuman medicine. London: Routledge.

Wartofsky, M. W. (2002). "Bodies, body parts, and body language: Reflections on ontology and personal identity in medical practice". En Engelhardt, H. T. (Ed.). The philosophy of medicine. Framing the field. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 37-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47475-1_3

Warwick, K. (2003). "Cyborg morals, cyborg values, cyborg ethics". Ethics and Information Technology. Vol. 5, 131-137. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ETIN.0000006870.65865.cf

Williams, S. J. (1997). "Modern medicine and the "uncertain body": From corporeality to hyperreality?". Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 45, Nº 7, 1041-1049. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(97)00031-2

Downloads

Published

2020-10-26

How to Cite

Rueda Etxeberria, J. (2020). From Transhumanist’s Morphological Freedom to Posthuman Corporeality: Convergences and Divergences. Isegoría, (63), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2020.063.02

Issue

Section

Articles