Table Of ContentPhilosophical Posthumanism
Theory
Series editor: Rosi Braidotti
Theory is back! The vitality of critical thinking in the world today is palpable,
as is a spirit of insurgency that sustains it. Theoretical practice has exploded
with renewed energy in media, society, the arts and the corporate world. New
generations of critical “studies” areas have grown alongside the classical radical
epistemologies of the 1970s: gender, feminist, queer, race, postcolonial and
subaltern studies, cultural studies, film, television and media studies.
This series aims to present cartographic accounts of emerging critical
theories and to reflect the vitality and inspirational force of on-going theoretical
debates.
Editorial board
Stacy Alaimo (University of Texas at Arlington, USA)
Simone Bignall (Flinders University, Australia)
Judith Butler (University of Berkeley, USA)
Christine Daigle (Brock University, Canada)
Rick Dolphijn (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Matthew Fuller (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Engin Isin (Queen Mary University of London, UK, and University of London
Institute in Paris, France)
Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
Achille Mbembe (University Witwatersrand, South Africa)
Henrietta Moore (University College London, UK)
Titles in the series so far
Posthuman Glossary, edited by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova
Conflicting Humanities, edited by Rosi Braidotti and Paul Gilroy
General Ecology, edited by Erich Hörl with James Burton
Philosophical Posthumanism
Francesca Ferrando
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First published in Great Britain 2019
Copyright © Francesca Ferrando, 2019
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To us, human and posthuman beings.
To existence.
vi
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface: The Posthuman as Exuberant Excess Rosi Braidotti xi
Bibliographic Note xvii
Introduction: From Human to Posthuman 1
Navigational Tool: A Glossary of Questions 7
Part One What Is Philosophical Posthumanism?
1 Premises 21
2 From Postmodern to Posthuman 24
3 Posthumanism and Its Others 27
4 The Birth of Transhumanism 29
5 Contemporary Transhumanism(s) 31
6 The Roots of Transhumanism 33
7 Transhumanism and Techno-Enchantment 35
8 Posthumanist Technologies as Ways of Revealing 39
9 Antihumanism and the Übermensch 45
10 Philosophical Posthumanism 54
Interlude 1 60
Part Two Of Which “Human” Is the Posthuman a “Post”?
11 The Power of the Hyphen 65
12 Humanizing 68
13 The Anthropological Machine 73
14 Almost, Human 77
15 Technologies of the Self as Posthumanist (Re)Sources 82
16 The Epiphany of Becoming Human 85
17 Where Does the Word “Human” Come From? 89
18 Mammals or Homo sapiens? 93
Interlude 2 98
viii Contents
Part Three Have Humans Always Been Posthuman?
19 Post-Anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene 103
20 Posthuman Life 109
a. Bios and Zoē 109
b. Animate/Inanimate 110
21 Artificial Life 115
22 Evolving Species 120
23 Posthumanities 124
24 Posthuman Bioethics 128
25 Human Enhancement 133
26 Cognitive Autopoiesis 140
27 Posthumanist Perspectivism 148
28 From New Materialisms to Object-Oriented Ontology 158
29 Philosophical Posthumanist Ontology 166
30 The Multiverse 171
a. The Multiverse in Science 171
b. The Multiverse in Philosophy 175
c. A Thought Experiment: The Posthuman Multiverse 177
Interlude 3 183
Concluding Celebration 185
Notes 191
Bibliography 231
Index 259
Acknowledgments
My sincerest thanks to Prof. Rosi Braidotti, Prof. Francesca Brezzi, and Prof.
Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, the trinity of wisdom.
Academic Tribe
Many thanks to Prof. Kevin Warwick, Prof. Achille Varzi, Prof. Luisa Passerini,
Prof. Gianni Vattimo, Prof. Giacomo Marramao, Prof. Simona Marino, Prof.
Angelo Morino, Prof. Evi Sampanikou, Dr. Natasha Vita-More, Prof. David
Roden, and Jaime del Val, for their inestimable intellectual, human, and
posthuman support. Many thanks to the Sainati Prize, the ETS publishing house,
Bloomsbury, Frankie Mace, and the anonymous reviewers, for supporting this
project with passion, vision, and patience. Many thanks to NYU-Liberal Studies,
for believing in my work and offering me the ideal place to share, teach, and
learn. Many thanks to all my amazing students, who inspire my life every day
and who taught me how to teach the posthuman in clear and engaging ways:
your feedback has been most precious in the articulation of this book.
Special thanks to the Beyond Humanism Network, the NY Posthuman
Research Group, the co-organizers—(in alphabetic order): Kevin Lagrandeur,
Farzad Mahootian, Jim McBride, and Yunus Tuncel—the World Posthuman
Society, and Thomas Steinbuch, for nourishing the posthuman paradigm shift
and constantly inspiring intellectual vision. I would also recognize my translators
in other languages, for enabling the posthuman discussion to flourish outside
of the English-speaking world—in particular Dr. Angela Balzano and Prof.
Roman Stansiesko. My heartfelt thanks to the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Roma Tre, Italy; the Department of Philosophy and the “IRWGS”
Research Center of Columbia University, United States; the Department of
Cybernetics at the University of Reading, England; “CIRSDe,” the Center for
Gender Studies at the University of Turin; and the Doctorate of Gender at the
University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
