Humanistic presuppositions about individual and social development have provided the rationale for education since as early as Western culture’s Renaissance period. The belief that the individual could be reformed through education, to the end of bettering the condition of society as a whole, carried a practical kernel of humanism that sprouted into an explicitly anthropocentric… Continue reading Applying Theocentric Posthumanism to Curriculum Theory
Category: Critical
Interstellar, Tenet and Nolan’s Secular Faith
*****WARNING – SPOILERS FOR INTERSTELLAR AND TENET****** *****WARNING – SPOILERS FOR INTERSTELLAR AND TENET****** *****WARNING – SPOILERS FOR INTERSTELLAR AND TENET****** *****WARNING – SPOILERS FOR INTERSTELLAR AND TENET****** Apart from showcasing Christopher Nolan’s impressive vision and exacting execution when bringing a science fiction premise to fruition, his latest offering in Tenet confirms a secular conviction… Continue reading Interstellar, Tenet and Nolan’s Secular Faith
Against Telos Regarded as Intrinsic Proper Function or Similar
I am an anti-essentialist in many respects, though there are some ideas denoted by some senses of the term to which I would not give assent. For example, I believe in a primitive kind of individual essence that explains the persistence of identity through change. However, I certainly do not believe in robust generic essences… Continue reading Against Telos Regarded as Intrinsic Proper Function or Similar
Optimism in the Face of the Irreconcilably Alien (COVID 19 Edition)
The two feature films directed by Alex Garland, Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018), have something in common that intrigues me, beyond the obvious similarity of their sci-fi genre. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS*** follow. Mild ***SPOILERS***… Continue reading Optimism in the Face of the Irreconcilably Alien (COVID 19 Edition)
Staying with the Trouble
Having recently read Donna Haraway’s text, Staying with the Trouble (Duke University Press, 2016), I now offer some thoughts in response. Haraway is best known for her seminal essay, ‘The Cyborg Manifesto’, first published in 1985, in which she explores the idea that humanity has always been constituted as a process of species becoming that… Continue reading Staying with the Trouble
The Performance of Gender Oppression
In my last post, here, I pointed out a way in which one futurist suppresses a tacit commitment to objective morality. This suppression is a common theme of posthumanist discourse, because anti-essentialist ethics often tries to have its cake and eat it, too, by declaring all essences to be socially constructed, and yet trying to… Continue reading The Performance of Gender Oppression
Homo Deus
Though it does not seem to end up saying anything on a scale of grandeur to justify the title, rather appearing to peter out on the cusp of transitioning from a commentary about to humanity’s past to a substantial exploration of future possibilities, Yuval Noah Harari’s work of popular non-fiction about our possible trans- or… Continue reading Homo Deus
Alita: Battle Angel
***Mild Spoiler Warning*** James Cameron (producer) and Robert Rodriguez (director) have delivered an aesthetically stunning adaptation of the manga series, Gunnm, but at the expense of developing significant narrative tension and critical engagement with challenging ideas. Its failure to grapple with questions arising for human essentialism once the genie of genetic and cybernetic enhancement is… Continue reading Alita: Battle Angel
Against Appeals to Natural Law in the Public Square
Posthumanism is an anti-essentialism and, as such, it rejects arguments from humanity’s intrinsic nature to conclusions about law and morality. Or, at least, that is the logical consequence. It does not stop posthumanists from making ethical and culturally critical arguments that rely on a fluid conception of telos to, somewhat selectively, ground their normative claims.… Continue reading Against Appeals to Natural Law in the Public Square
Materialism and Representation
Much posthumanist, nonhumanist or antihumanist discourse is motivated by a methodological commitment to materialism. This is so notwithstanding the question mark over what the more detailed commitments of materialism actually are, e.g. whether matter is prior to or dependent upon the form of objects. In other words, whether matter is fundamentally things or stuff, or… Continue reading Materialism and Representation
Theocentric Posthumanism 
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