Paper's abstract

Gilbert Hottois, Transhumanism and Posthumanism: an Attempt at Clarification
Within the transhumanist and posthumanist nebula, we distinguish the different uses of these two terms. Transhumanism is well defined as a philosophy of the voluntary improvement of the individual by technical means. One first use of "posthumanism" as almost synonymous with "transhumanism" shows that transhuman improvement when indefinitely pursued risks leading to posthumanism. Two other uses of "post-humanism" are to be distinguished. One is critical ideological and aims at deconstruc-ting prejudices attached to traditional and modern humanisms. It invites to rethink the human subject (the person) not to biophysically modify the individual or species. The second is autonomous posthumanism which anticipates technological evolutions (robotics, algorithms, biosynthetics, neuromorphics…) breaking from the human species and substituting new intelligent forms of life to it. The announcement of a Technological Singularity is here emblematic. Finally, we analyze in what sense transhumanism can be understood as a new humanism criticizing and enriching traditional and modern humanisms.

Key Words : AI humanism
t. 59, 2017: p. XXVII-XXXIV