Description
Book SynopsisThis timely book examines the rise of posthumanism as both a material condition and a developing philosophical-ethical project in the age of cloning, gene engineering, organ transplants and implants.
Trade Review"Nayar has produced a clear and comprehensive survey and analysis of contemporary posthuman thought. He avoids the excessive reliance on jargon that often mars writing on this topic, and treats the competing views he discusses with an even and incisive hand."
Robert Pepperell, Cardiff School of Art & Design"Posthumanism is a coming-of-age book for studies of science, technology, and culture. It brings together the most crucial considerations of current debates about the status of the posthuman and, in so doing, beautifully weaves together their political history and current relevance when thinking through this complex terrain."
Andy Miah, University of the West of ScotlandTable of ContentsContents
Acknowledgements
1. Revisiting the Human: Critical Humanisms
Terms and Definitions
Critical Humanisms and the Origins of Posthumanism
2. Consciousness, Biology and the Necessity of Alterity
Cognition, Consciousness and Autopoiesis
Biology, Systems and Systems Biology
Dealing with/in Alterity
3. The Body, Reformatted
Biomedia, the Body Mathematized and Postvital Life
Other/ing Bodies
The Body as Congeries, Assemblage and Interface
4. Absolute Monstrosities: The ‘Question of the Animal’
Monster Theory: Cultures of Otherness
Animal Nature, Human Nature
The Humanimal
Speciesism
5. Life Itself: The View from Disability Studies and Bioethics
Disability Studies and the Norms of the ‘Human’
Bioethics and Personhood
6. Posthuman Visions: Toward Companion Species
Posthuman Biology
Posthumanist Biology
Companion Species
Conclusion: Posthumanism as Species Cosmopolitanism
Bibliography
Index
