March 28, 2024

New journal to explore what comes after Humanity 1.0

The Journal of Posthuman Studies examines trans and post-humanism

This has just come to our attention: a journal launched last year on trans and post-humanism. The Journal of Posthuman Studies is based at the Ewha Institute for the Humanities, a Korean “research institute to overcome the crisis of humanities” and published by the Penn State University Press. Its editor-in-chief is Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, a German philosopher at John Cabot University in Rome.   

In an introductory note, Sorgner explains the difference between posthumanism and transhumanism, two terms which are probably regarded as synonymous by outsiders.

The two movements differ significantly in language, style, and methodology. Transhumanists are linear thinkers, employ technical vocabulary, and have a scientific methodology, while posthumanists embrace a nonlinear way of thinking, use metaphors, and have a hermeneutic methodology.

The two movements also have radically different pedigrees. Transhumanism is rooted in Darwin’s evolutionary theory, Mill’s utilitarianism, and Anglo-American analytic applied ethics discourses.

Posthumanism, on the other hand, is more closely related to continental philosophy, literary theory, and cultural studies and affirms narrative approaches to ethical issues. Transhumanists have a particular strength in their analysis of specific applied ethical questions, whereas posthumanists have developed a complex philosophical methodology for approaching wider cultural issues.

The latest issue includes articles on “Moderate Transhumanism and Compassion”, “The Case for Technological Mysticism”, and “Ex Machina and the Fate of Posthuman Masculinity: The Technical Death of Man”.

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