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PRZEGLĄD KULTUROZNAWCZY NR 2 (40) 2019, s. 244–251 www.ejournals.eu/Przeglad-Kulturoznawczy/

 http://orcid.org/0000-001-9947-6516

Roman Sapeńko University of Zielona Góra, Poland

FRANCESCA FERRANDO’S VISION OF PHILOSOPHICAL POSTHUMANISM OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY OMÓWIENIA

Francesca Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, London–New York–Oxford–New Delhi–Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, ss. 271

Francesca Ferrando’s book Philosoph- ism. And it is not a simple task, because, ical Posthumanism1 dose not comprise as Google’s browser shows, there are exactly what the title suggest. It is much 535,000 links to this word. The aca- more than that—it is a concise and very demic text viewer (Academia.edu) has interesting compendium, full of the recently responded to this slogan with most current problems concerning of 14,640 folders. , on the what in the 21st century is. other hand, can be proud of its numbers: It is a scientifi c work and, at the same 18,800,000 (Google) and 80,100 (Aca- time, a textbook for contemporary phi- demia). Still in 2018, Matthew E. Glad- losophy. I would describe this work den, in the fragment from his work, said a few others titles, like: Philosophy af- that “the term ‘posthumanism’ has been ter the 20th century, Post-Philosophy of employed to describe a diverse array of the 21st century, Lectures on Planetary phenomena ranging from academic dis- , Handbook of Contempo- ciplines and artistic movements to po- rary Philosophy. litical advocacy campaigns and the de- This book is extremely important velopment of commercial . because there have been many misun- Such phenomena diff er widely in their derstandings about the term - subject matter purpose, and methodolo- ism and about how much it is related gy, raising the question of whether it is and how much it overlaps with another possible to fashion a coherent defi nition extremely popular term—- of posthumanism that encompasses all phenomena thus labeled”.2 Besides, post-

1 F. Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, London–New York–Oxford–New Delhi– 2 M.E. Gladden, Sapient Circuits and Digitalized Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. Flesh: The Organization as Locus of Techno-

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humanist thinkers themselves are guilty the paper consists of 237 questions and OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY of many misunderstandings, because as answers that describe the state of con- R. Ranish and S.L. Sorgner write, hav- temporary philosophy (we are talking ing much in common with the ideas of about philosophy because it is so in the transhumanism, thinkers do title of the paper, but we can also say not parish to show the diff erences in the that it is a work generally in the fi eld initial premises (as Ferrando perfectly of humanities). This fact is emphasized showed), although they have always re- in R. Braidotti’s preface, when she says frained from transhumanist technofi les that Ferrando engaged in her research and faith in the end of a man as we know philosophy, fi lm, television and media him.3 Today, after the release of Ferran- studies, gender study, postcolonial study, do’s work, one can say that for anyone cultural studies, and in addition, she is who reads it, these controversies disap- able to move effi ciently in the subject pear. of , and physics The book should satisfy not only (interpretation of the theory of strings a sophisticated researcher, but is also an and its signifi cance for the concept of interesting reading for someone who be- multiversum in the context of Ferrando, gins his or her adventure with the gen- pp. 166–169). eral humanities, especially the one that The beginning of the work is the most sets itself theoretical goals related to the accurate and precise (the author reaches post-world. During reading, such a read- the limit of accuracy here) presentation er does not have to constantly refer to the of what be the subject of the follow- Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The author ing sections and chapters. This initial thoroughly explains all new or compli- presentation of intricate paths and prob- cated concepts, all ambiguities. All re- lems, as well as the questions she had lated problems and their context are also to answer in this book is entitled: Navi- taken into consideration. gational Tool: A Glossary of Questions. This is due to the consistent writing This is not a mere notifi cation—Ferran- method and the Ferrando methodology, do precisely follows the plan present- which are refl ected in the structure of the ed in the Navigational Tool throughout book and the way in which it is present- the book. As it has been said already, ed. The structure of the paper is based 237 questions are answered throughout on asking questions and answering them the course of book. Thanks to this struc- precisely. In this context, we can say that ture, and the questions, the author guides the reader through the complex materi- al of everything that has accumulated in logical (part: “Typology of Posthumanism”), Indianapolis: Defragmenter recent decades around the discussion of Media, 2018, p. 31. posthumanism/transhumanism, and that 3 See: K. LaGrandeur, “Book review: Robert Ra- has more often led to misunderstand- nisch and Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, ed., Post- and ings rather than clarity. This paragraph Transhumanism: An Introduction”, Journal of is preceded by a 6-page introduction by and Technology 2015 (June), vol. 25, iss. 1. Ferrando entitled “Introduction: From

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to Posthuman”. One might think not, the task, will be completely depen-

that this is a mistake because in these two dent on his idea of who an experienced fragments Ferrando discovers all her ad- and mature researcher is, and his con- vantages, the whole workshop of the re- sciousness of what he is doing. searcher. This is a detailed plan in which The book is very modern not only for she describes in detail the paths she fol- its content but also for its form. Reserved lowed in order to undertake theoretical in accordance with the “question-answer” struggles. For those who are better in- scheme, it perfectly fi ts into the contem- formed in the subject matter it may seem porary mentality, for which the game is suffi cient, as it is an outline of the whole the foundation of its functioning. There- OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY OMÓWIENIA work (this is what students dream about). fore, in a sense it can be read from any Partly that’s right—we get an extensive direction, just like the famous Hopscotch cognitive panorama of the problem, but (in Spanish: Rayuela), a novel by Argen- on the other hand it’s an advantage that tine writer Julio Cortázar. At the same hardly any author is able to present for time, the spirit of philosophy as such the reader a huge rang of problems con- does not disappear from work, because nected to the set of category named as the questions Ferrando poses are very posthumanism/transhumanism and oth- interesting in themselves, sometimes ers. After all, Ferrando’s proposal not even fundamental, as in the case: “How only has a theoretical dimension—philo- can we exist, as posthumanists? What is sophical posthumanism appears as an at- matter? Are robots nonhuman persons? tempt to integrate the main problems of What is ? Haw can and refl ection. Ferrando herself says Nietzsche be relevant in our everyday this, stressing at every stage of work that life? Will evolve into diff erent philosophical posthumanism is philoso- species?” Who wouldn’t want to know? phy and practice. As has already been said, the book When I started reading a book after not only touches upon the most import- it was send by the publishing house, ant problems of the contemporary man. I showed a few paragraphs to my as- However, in the context of Ferrando’s sistant (PhD student), who has fi nalized work, the term “problems of contem- his PhD thesis. Just like me, he was fas- porary man” cannot be used anymore, cinated by the clarity of form and con- because this work, as well as the whole tent and how much the text refl ects the posthumanism, abolishes the hegemonic methodology of Ferrando’s work. We discourse and dominating practices of the were surprised by the ease of reading the “hitherto” man. Therefore, it is about book, which is very rare for scientifi c the most important problems of the con- work, especially in our Eastern Europe- temporary world, civilization and culture an scien tifi c community (teutonic style is dominated by man-made technology. defi nitely triumphant in our country). If In any case, this is in line with the I had seen a similar scientifi c text before, main premise of the book; in the fi rst I would defi nitely recommend it to my sentence, Ferrando confi rms this with student. But whether he live up to task or

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full conviction: “Posthumanism is the of). She writes: “It follows that human- OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY philosophy of our time” (p. 1). ities in the post-human age of anthropo- Only a year ago we were not con- cene should not remain with Human— scious/we did not realize how important let alone Man—as the proper subject of this work is, how current its problem are. study. On the contrary, this fi eld would One of the is that the notion of benefi t from freeing itself from the reign anthropocene, which is also one of the of the humanistic empire. It would also most important here, describes the con- do well to adopt a post-anthropocentric dition of the world shaped according to perspective on the issues of importance the hegemonic position of humankind to the entire planet, such as scientifi c in relation to . Today it is widely and technological development, ecolog- known that in order to survive, to have ical and social balance, and the multi- any chance of surviving and life in any ple challenges of globalization”.5 In her of a post-world, to survive even a climate introductory (Preface: The Posthuman crisis, man must radically change his re- as Exuberant Excess) to the Ferrando’s lations with the environment in which book, Braidotti highlights this aspect he . This is perfectly illustrated by of the book: all humanities must be in- the latest dramatic report of the IPCC. volved in order to formulate a planetary It shows the image of a degraded Earth. perspective. One could therefore say that Climate change may lead to food short- the Ferrando project is about creating ages, increase human migration and fuel a planetary humanities in which man is confl icts and war, warns the IPCC.4 only an element of a larger whole, but This is not possible without a total unfortunately a component that, as we departure from the existing discours- already know, has a great power of de- es, practices and . In this struction. And if civilisation continues sense, Ferrando’s reference to G. Ag- to function in its current paradigm and amben’s refl ections about relevance of form, we must be afraid. This does not the origin of the category of life. Well, mean, however, that Ferrando’s work has Agamben analyses the Greek sources of some sort of Cassandra dimension. For- the terms bios and zoē, and states: “Zoē tunately, it does not. Here we have the is common to all living , including deliberations that are scientifi c in nature, animals, men or gods, and it can be de- well argued and, as has already been fi ned as ‘bare life’” (Ferrando, p. 110). said, touching upon the most important The affi nity with R. Braidotti’s refl ection problems of modern times. At the same from her work The Posthuman (Polish time, the book is extremely optimistic, edition: Po człowieku) is also clearly vis- because it reveals the committed spirit of ible here. Braidotti postulates building the author, who is convinced of the open- a new humanistic approach to the chal- ness of man and the possibility of mak- lenges of the contemporary world (which the changing climate is an expression 5 R. Braidotti, Po człowieku, transl. by J. Bednarek, A. Kowalczyk, Warszawa: Wy- 4 See: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/srccl/. dawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2013, p. 321.

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 ing changes. Isn’t that the true role of tioning of these ideas on many levels

philosophy and the role of an authentic with a strong deviation towards business. thinker? After all, this is what K. Marks And, as we all know, business and mar- meant in his famous thesis about Feuer- keting always need bearing ideologies bach: “Philosophers have hitherto only (of which R. Kurzweil seems to be a per- interpreted the world in various ways; fect example). Fernando writes about the the point is to change it”. origins of transhumanism, its fl aws and The unchanging value of the Ferran- modern condition in paragraphs 4–7. do’s book is that it ends the debate be- The uniqueness of posthumanism lies in tween transhumanism and posthuman- the fact that by not getting rid of human- OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY OMÓWIENIA ism, proving to be a victory for critical ism (in the most simple and customary and open philosophy. And although it sense), it is able to remain faithful to the is a work about everything that is be- premises and scientifi c and philosophi- yond human, one can shyly say that it is cal accuracy of the dispute and delibera- Ferrando’s appeal to man to go beyond tions, and not to succumb to the Enlight- himself, in the name of true humanity, enment myths. It seems that Ferrando in to become a cosmic man/posthuman. In her empathy for all at the sign this sense Neil Badmington is right, who of nonhuman still is the best image of hu- says that the rumours about the death of manism in such an understanding. Post- a human being are premature because generally is more academic, humanism has the ability to regenerate philosophical and scientifi c, and the vi- and re-invent.6 sion proposed by Francesca Ferrando is One thing is certain: the old human- the best manifestation of this. The author ism must be buried. From this perspec- is well aware of this when she writes: tive, one could say that transhumanism is “From a philosophical posthumanist already an inheritor of classical human- perspective based on mediation, we can ism, although that last one is holding on. interpret Posthumanism as both a refl ec- After all, it is a direct extension of the tion on what has been omitted from the Enlightenment’s idea of man and . notion of the human and a speculation And even if transhumanism pretended about the possible developments of the to be a philosophy, it was/is above all an human species” (p. 23). intellectual movement and ideology. Of As was mentioned before, a book course, without , without myth can also be treated as a textbook. When there can be no philosophy, but in the the author invokes and discusses certain case of transhumanism, philosophical concepts, she can explain them in a very was dominated and covered illustrative way. This is a great advan- by the Enlightenment myth. Maybe it is tage of this book, after all, it has been a consequence of the necessity of func- known for a long time that philosophical considerations are often treated with fear by potential readers. This certainly does 6 N. Badmington, “Theorizing Posthumanism”, not apply to this work. Take the chap- Cultural Critique 2003 (Winter), no. 53: Post- humanism, p. 11. ter entitled “Posthumanist Technolo-

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gies as Ways of Revealing”, in which cussed their contributions and limits. OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY the author refers to M. Heidegger’s con- What about post-dualism? The third term cept of technology. Here she uses the of reference, post-dualism, has not been image of a sculptor working on a piece engaged fully and needs a deeper inquiry. of marble. Potentially, many things can Another value of this work is that it come out of it, but when the technologi- may be a starting methodological par- cal process of turning is completed, only adigm for many detailed and concrete one of the many possibilities is realized. studies of a huge sphere widely defi ned Ferrando also refers to Wally-E (USA, as everything what has posthuman char- 2008), which shows the people of the fu- acteristic. For me, for example, when ture as obese, with short arms and legs. I try to analyze the phenomenon of post- This may be used to illustrate the num- human eroticism, Ferrando’s tips are bers of unforeseen and unintended ways extremely valuable, as we can embark how technology infl uenced humankind on an extraordinary theoretical journey (pp. 42–43). through the world of possible sexes, erot- Ferrando follows in the footsteps of ic relations and hybrid transgender rela- D. Haraway and R. Braidotti. She writes tionships—both in the sphere of cultural about the relevancy of D. Haraway’s con- imaginarium, as in the sphere of real so- siderations showing the lack of stability cial life. in reference to the notion of man, and Anthony Giddens already spoke of that in made necessary a study of issue postmodern intimacy and eroticism, of hybridity (p. 26). However, when she which are expressed in the fi gure of defi nes posthumanism, it is close to what pure relation.7 These circumstances R. Braidotti writes in the introduction to create premises for post-enthusiasm, the Ferrando’s book by emphasizing the for post-erotic pleasure in post-world. same important points: I have defi ned However, we can ask what would be the the posthuman as a convergence phe- of mutual giving of pleasure. nomenon between post-humanism and It is an expression of the evolution of post-, that is to say, the the process of individualization, which critique of the universal ideal of the Man has led to the total emancipation of the of reason on the one hand and the rejec- individ ual, who, in erotic matters func- tion of species supremacy on the other tions on the border of absolute freedom. (p. 11). As if in the declarations of two Posthumanism shows how the tradition- voices, on page 60 Ferrando states: Post- al understanding of dis- humanism can be defi ned as a post-an- solves, and each human being becomes thropocentrism, as a post-humanism, and the “Other”. Ferrando shows what are as a post-dualism. The fi rst two terms, the possible conditions for the encounter that is, post-humanism and post-an- thropocentrism, have been emphasized clearly in the formation of Philosophical 7 A. Giddens, Przemiany intymności. Seksu- Posthumanism; we have analyzed some alność, miłość i erotyzm we współczesnych społeczeństwach, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo of their genealogical references and dis- Naukowe PWN, 2006, p. 81.

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 with the various fi gures of the post-hu- after human. Gender diversity and plu-

manistic “Other”. ralism have a positive infl uence on the This aspect is also strongly em- diversifi cation and deepening of human phasized by R. Braidotti’s in Preface: sensitivity related to eroticism and sex- “Furthermore, Ferrando’s multispecies uality, and therefore they even positively discursive universe invites us to rethink deepen existence. Rather, they promote sexuality without and beyond genders, the processes of human empowerment starting from a vitalist return to the poly- and individualisation. Traditional ap- morphous and perverse structure of hu- proach was too arbitrary, without any man and nonhuman sexuality” (p. 15). justifi cation, referring to the ideological- OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY OMÓWIENIA Paradoxically, such cases of “post-hu- ly defi ned nature of man. For example, manistic” erotic relations are already when it comes to gender dimorphism, known today. At the 9th Berlin Biennale, it may be completely diff erent than one a video by Ingo Niermann and Alex Ka- would think—it will only be artifi cially rolinski Army of Love (2016) was pre- supported for reproductive purposes.8 Of sented. The video is an account of erotic course, the other question is whether it sessions during which young volunteers will be needed at all for post-human be- enter into erotic relations with disabled ings, freed from the necessity of biologi- people of diff erent ages. The authors cal reproduction. state a growing demand for erotic inti- Slavoj Žižek talked about a similar macy and postulate that only its eman- problem and perfectly emphasizes the cipation from the rigour of attractiveness posthumanistic, importance of this issue, will allow to fairly satisfy the erotic not transhumanistic, how a lot of think- needs of people in the world, which is ers may seems. Of course, as often in the foundation of happiness and mental the case of this author, it is not devoid health. This new approach does not mean of a certain ambiguity and ridicule. He a new humanistic essentialism. On the analyzed the hypothetical situation of contrary, the extension of erotic love to humanity (2040) in M. Houellebecq’s that are above all characterized as novel Atomised. In order to avoid im- Others who do not meet our customary passe and confl icts arising from sexual standards is only the fi rst step towards passions, the human species is genetical- a completely unrestricted desire and gen- ly transformed into humanoids devoid der, also through a species barrier. of sexual needs. This new, post-human Posthumanistic refl ection on the gen- genre is a bit like a Foucault’s man as der determinants of human functioning a multiplied Self, who can enjoy himself raises the issue of erotic identity in a dif- painlessly, in an unlimited way, because ferent way. As Ferrando says, man is not there are no traditionally expressed pas- an autonomous subject, but is located in a vast system of mutual relations. What is a threat to traditional, hegemonic hu- 8 manities is a blessing for a new under- S. Žižek, “Żadnego seksu! To jest posthuma- nizm”, Przegląd Filozofi czno-Literacki 2009, standing of existence that can follow no. 1, s. 41–52.

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sions behind them—because they are de- Bibliography OMÓWIENIA I ROZBIORY tached from the Self. The above comments on a very spe- Braidotti R., Po człowieku, transl. by J. Bed- cifi c problem do not, of course, aim at narek, A. Kowalczyk, Warszawa: Wy- presenting the problem exhaustively. dawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2013 (Polish They only demonstrate that Ferrando’s edition). book is methodologically and empirical- Badmington N., “Theorizing Posthuman- ly inspiring in every respect. ism”, Cultural Critique 2003 (Winter), no. 53: Posthumanism. Ferrando vision of philosophical Giddens A., Przemiany intymności. Seksual- posthumanism clearly puts the caesu- ność, miłość i erotyzm we współczesnych ra between yesterday’s, we can say, społeczeństwach, Warszawa: Wydawnic- hard-headed (and as we have already two Naukowe PWN, 2006. knew very dangerous for the planet) hu- Gladden M.E., Sapient Circuits and Digi- manism and open, critical posthuman- talized Flesh: The Organization as Locus ism. of Technological Posthumanization (part: The whole spirit of the philosophy of “Typology of Posthumanism”), Indiana- posthumanism and philosophy of Fran- polis: Defragmenter Media, 2018. cesca Ferrando is contained in the in- LaGrandeur K., “Book review: Robert Ra- vocation to the book: To us, human and nisch and Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, ed., posthuman beings. To existence. Post- and Transhumanism: An Introduc- tion”, Journal of Evolution and Techno- I can only repeat after the author: logy 2015 (June), vol. 25, iss. 1. this is a book for us, for human and Žižek S., “Żadnego seksu! To jest posthuma- posthuman readers. If you want to live nizm”, Przegląd Filozofi czno-Literacki in a world that’s not going to fall, you 2009, no. 1, pp. 41–52. should read it and apply it.

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