From Human Transcendence to the Transgression of Humanity: Attempt at a Philosophical and Sociological Conceptualization of Transhumanism

Markus LIPOWICZ

Instytut Nauk o Wychowaniu, Wydział Pedagogiczny, Akademia Ignatianum, ul. Kopernika 26, 31-501 Cracow, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present an analytical perspective on transhumanism which refers to the concepts of transcendence and transgression. I will argue that transhumanism is a direct consequence of the rise of the postmodern era, which significantly reduced the vertical image of the world in order to popularize its horizontal image, which in turn also changed the perspective on human existence and mankind. Nowadays the idea of humanity lacks a transcendental reference point that would be normatively and universally binding on an institutional level. This absence of a metaphysical center, which Friedrich Nietzsche expressed in the popular dictum: “God is dead,” finally led to the idea that mankind shall overcome all cultural, social and even biological boundaries which suppress self-realization. However, nowadays the idea of human self-realization transformed into an attempt at transgressing all human limitations in order to give rise to a new species: a godlike post-human figure. Therefore transhumanism opens another chapter in the long history of human attempts at self-salvation. I try to demonstrate that even a partial realization of the main premises of this intellectual movement might not only lead to the physical ‘death of man,’ but would consequently destruct the basic feature and main sphere of human existence, that is culture based on metaphysical ideas.

Keywords:

transhumanism, transcendence, transgression, humanity, postmodernity, culture