Our recent off-reading-group discussion of (post-)humanism was, as the Germans say, klein aber fein (small but fine; that is, worthwhile and to-the-point). It made me think, especially in light of the fact that other potentially meaningful texts about the subject were presented too. In fact, it has occurred to me that it might not be a completely worthless idea to consider setting up a little corner of our virtual universe here for a kind of annotated bibliography of texts that might be useful to others in finding their way through the maze of whatever it is we’re trying to figure out here. Let’s face it. @madrush was poignantly correct in noting that trying to discuss post-humanism without a clear understanding of humanism itself is may be a futile undertaking. I would suspect that @natesavery, @care_save, and @patanswer would agree.
In this spirit, I’d like to add an additional 2-cents to the overall discussion. I’ve had a week or so to digest our online conversation — which was certainly time well spent — and it stimulated further thought on the subject, to say the least. What is more, I’ve run across another book (like we all don’t have enough to read) that I believe is a valuable contribution to the overall discussion. This is why I think a kind of annotated bibliography may be helpful for Infinite-Conversationalists who want to dig deeper into a given topic or who are looking for some qualified orientation regarding what may (or may not) be worthwhile when dealing with a given subject-matter, topic, or theme.
The book I’d like to introduce into the discussion, and which I believe is well worth reading, is Kenen Malik’s Man, Beast and Zombie: What science can and cannot tell us about human nature (Phoenix: London, 2001). As @johnnydavis54 noted elsewhere, there is a tendency these days to “label and dismiss”, which both of us agree is a poor approach to coming to terms with life as we experience it. What is central to many of our discussions — for example, as evidenced by our Sloterdijk reading and its fallout — is the notion of what is means to be “human”. If the general notion of “humanism” is being rejected, or if some contend that we’ve moved into a “post-human” or even “trans-human” reality, it would do all of us well to take a step back and get clear for ourselves what we think we mean when we use the term “human” itself. This is precisely where Malik begins.
Like almost all modern authors (and here Gebser is the exception), Malik starts with the Greeks and gives us an overview of how these first systematic thinkers viewed what it means to be “human”. He quickly moves, however, to a concise and insightful account of the “science”, as a way of knowing, and the scientific method and how this has come to our perceptions of how we see and what we know about the world. Trained as a neurobiologist and having worked as a research psychologist, he is approaching the subject from the “inside” so to speak, from the science side, but he left academia to become a thinker and writer, for he believes that all of us need to be clear on what we mean when we use such terms.
Man, Beast and Zombie is an informed, insightful, but dispassionate look at what human nature must be, and he gives serious and thoughtful attention to the views of those who see the world differently than he does. At the very onset, he makes clear that he believes we humans exhibit a uniqueness that needs to be taken seriously and not simply discarded as being outmoded, ill-informed, or even hazardous for our planet’s health. The book is anything but an apology for humans, however. We are dealing with a considered, detailed, and open account of what anyone who has anything to say about the subject might be able to contribute to a meaningful discussion. There’s no condescension, no patronising, no over-exuberant portrayal of his own position. This is a book about understanding, not about who may be right.
In other words, in addition to showing historically and diachronically how our notions (and there are always more than one) of human nature have changed since the Greeks, he is very capable of making clear what science — as a way of knowing — has contributed (and inhibited) to this understanding over time. What he primarily does is provide a sound and sober context for the past and current discussions about what it means to be human, and what the consequences of this might be moving forward. I think he shows particularly well that we can’t reduce the human being to “mere” material (physical, biological) processes and elements, but that historical (very much so) and social factors (most definitely) are critical and essential factors to be considered in understanding (and explaining) our humanness, and that there is a cultural-historical dimension to the subject that cannot simply be discarded because it is problematic and uncomfortable to deal with. He addresses very carefully and specifically with both sociobiology and evolutionary psychology which have been driving the discussion over the past 40 years or so. That is to say, Malik forces us to take a step backward and seriously consider what is driving our own, individual comprehension (i.e., what I believe and why) of what it means to be human. He then takes the time and makes the effort to show us what everyday, real-life, political consequences these views can lead to. Stated most succinctly, he thinks his thoughts through.
His is not a strictly academic contribution to an “esoteric” discussion, rather he makes clear that there are far-reaching and critical consequences to whatever that our view might be. Given the current crisis state in which we find ourselves, such a thinking-through is needed more than ever. Again, this is not a book about who is right. It is a book about who understands, in the truest and deepest sense of the word. We need to think long, hard, and deeply about a very fundamental topic, because our actual future an perhaps existence hang in the balance. This is a serious book that needs to be taken seriously, but it is one that can certainly help clear the air regarding all the “human-related” schools of thinking that are vying for our attention.