PHILOSOPHICAL MONOGRAPHS (Vol. 2) Four Essays

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Posthumanism, 2020

This paper consider Critical Posthumanism, in the guise of thinkers such as Haraway and Braidotti, and introduces Speculative Posthumanism, while raising epistemological questions about both forms of posthumanism. Particularly important will be the issue of how to justify critical posthumanist claims about the embodied, ethically connected posthuman subject in the teeth of Epistemological Filters employed in Speculative Posthumanism. The Filter Arguments imply a radical form of abstraction which - following Badiou's terminology - we might relate to the idea of a 'subtractive' withdrawal from any concrete idea of a subject, embodied or otherwise: the figure of the 'biomorph', that I exemplify first in the bleak environs of J G Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition. Although this creates problems for the critical posthumanists' embodied, affective subject it also raises formidable issues for the kinds of minimal agency that I explore in Posthuman Life. The result is a biomorphic posthumanism that can only think the void of the future by effectuating it. This immanent posthuman performance (disconnection thinking disconnection) is compared to the way Francois Laruelle’s Non-Philosophy attempts to think in or from the Real rather than about it. A consideration of the role of the non-philosophical performative, I argue, limns a ‘broken’ thought that can disconnect without pre-conception. The final part of the essay explores biomorphisms in the art and texts of Hans Bellmer, Ballard and Gary J Shipley.

Thesis Eleven, 2024

This paper criticises contemporary posthumanist theories of anthropocentrism by reading an early essay by Bertrand Russell alongside work by Rosi Braidotti and Jane Bennett. It argues that, despite appearances, scientism and posthumanism share key commitments in common, such that clarifying the problems with which Russell struggles regarding nature and significance can illuminate symmetrical problems in posthumanism. Against these alternatives, the paper draws on insights from Bernard Williams, contemporary Hegelian philosophy, and J. J. Gibson's work on animal agency to sketch a picture of what it means to take a human perspective. It is the perspective of one species among others, with a particular evolutionary history; it is also the perspective of a species that, because of certain developments in that history, knows itself as such. That opens us to forms of answerability to the world that do not touch the lives of unselfconscious animals. Some critics of the theoretical discourse on anthropocentrism have argued that taking a human perspective is morally unobjectionable. This paper goes further: it is necessary for grasping our relation to the rest of nature and so our responsibilities for it.

"Posthumanist" theories have become increasingly popular among scholars in political ecology and other fields in the human sciences. The hope is that they will improve our grasp of relations between humans and various nonhumans and, in the process, offer the means to recompose the "social" and the "natural" domains. In this paper, I assess the merits of posthumanisms for critical scholarship. Looking specifically at the work of Bruno Latour (including his latest book, An inquiry into modes of existence) and Donna Haraway, I argue that posthumanist thinking offers not only analytical but normative advantages over conventional and even Marxian approaches. But these newer frameworks contain their own ethico-political limitations and, to the extent that they are useful for addressing conditions of injustice, they continue to depend upon conceptual resources from their precursors. For this reason, a critical political ecology would best be served by preserving a tension between humanist and posthumanist methods. Les théories «posthumaniste» sont devenus de plus en plus populaire parmi les spécialistes de l'écologie politique et d'autres domaines des sciences humaines. L'espoir est qu'ils amélioreront notre compréhension des relations différents entre les humains et non-humains. Et, dans le processus, offrir les moyens de recomposer les domaines «social» et «naturels». Dans cet article, je évaluer les avantages de posthumanismes pour érudition critique. Je suis particulièrement intéressé par les travaux de Bruno Latour (y compris son dernier livre, Une enquête sur les modes d'existence) et Donna Haraway. Je soutiens que la pensée posthumaniste offre non seulement des avantages analytiques mais normatifs par rapport aux approches classiques et même marxistes. Mais ces cadres nouveaux contiennent leurs propres limites éthico-politiques et, dans la mesure où ils sont utiles pour traiter des conditions de l'injustice, ils continuent à s'appuyer sur les ressources conceptuelles de leurs précurseurs. Pour cette raison, une «critical» écologie politique serait mieux servi en conservant une tension entre l'approche humaniste et posthumaniste. Teorías "posthumanista" se han convertido cada vez más popular entre académicos en la ecología política y otros campos de las ciencias humanas. Se espera que se mejoren nuestra comprensión de las relaciones entre los humanos y los diversos no-humanos, y través del proceso, se ofrezcan los medios para recomponer los dominios "social" y "naturales". En este artículo, evalúo los méritos de posthumanismo para los estudios críticos. Examinando específicamente la obra de Bruno Latour (incluyendo su último libro, Investigacion sobre los modos de existencia) y Donna Haraway, sostengo que el pensamiento posthumanista no sólo ofrece ventajas analíticas, sino que también ventajas normativas sobre los enfoques convencionales, e incluso los del marxismo. Sin embargo estos nuevos marcos encarnan sus propias limitaciones ético-políticas y, en la medida en que son útiles para hacer frente a las condiciones de injusticia, siguen dependiendo de los recursos conceptuales de sus precursores. Por esta motivo, una ecología política crítica sería mejor servido con la preservación de una tensión entre métodos humanistas y posthumanista.

Some posthumanist scholars, most notably those in the deep ecology movement, have argued for posthumanist ecological identity as an educational aim on the grounds that it will help stem the tide of ecological degradation. Current research on the efficacy of this approach is mixed. In this paper I provide an alternative argument for adopting posthumanist ecological identity as an educational aim. Drawing on R.S. Peters' awareness-based conception of education, as well as recent biological research on the phenomenon of symbiosis, I argue that education should seek to develop posthumanist ecological identities not because it would help stem ecological devastation (although it might), but because posthumanist ecological identity accurately reflects a central aspect of the human condition, and it is the very function of education to deepen our awareness of what it is we are.

Theory, Culture & Society, 2018

What are the parameters that define a posthuman knowing subject, her scientific credibility and ethical accountability? Taking the posthumanities as an emergent field of enquiry based on the convergence of posthumanism and post-anthropocentrism, I argue that posthuman knowledge claims go beyond the critiques of the universalist image of 'Man' and of human exceptionalism. The conceptual foundation I envisage for the critical posthumanities is a neo-Spinozist monistic ontology that assumes radical immanence, i.e. the primacy of intelligent and self-organizing matter. This implies that the posthuman knowing subject has to be understood as a relational embodied and embedded, affective and accountable entity and not only as a transcendental consciousness. Two related notions emerge from this claim: firstly, the mind-body continuum-i.e. the embrainment of the body and embodiment of the mind-and secondly, the nature-culture continuum-i.e. 'naturecultural' and 'humanimal' transversal bonding. The article explores these key conceptual and meth-odological perspectives and discusses the implications of the critical posthumanities for practices in the contemporary 'research' university.