Since the mid-twentieth century, the notion “the human” has become highly contested: Do we have an essential nature, or are all such definitions historically contingent and exclusionary, shaped by power relations, colonial histories, and the legacies of Western humanism? Can we still speak meaningfully of “humanity” in an age of ecological crisis and artificial intelligence, or is the very category of the human dissolving in the face of these challenges? This class approaches these questions through several frameworks: German philosophical anthropology, French antihumanism, and contemporary posthumanism.

Taught in English. Since the mid-twentieth century, the notion “the human” has become highly contested: Do we have an essential nature, or are all such definitions historically contingent and exclusionary, shaped by power relations, colonial histories, and the legacies of Western humanism? Can we still speak meaningfully of “humanity” in an age of ecological crisis and artificial intelligence, or is the very category of the human dissolving in the face of these challenges? This class approaches these questions through several frameworks: German philosophical anthropology, French antihumanism, and contemporary posthumanism. We will ask: What is “man” after European colonialism, after the “Anthropocene” that bears his name, and after the prospect of a technology that is more-than-human? Drawing from thinkers such as Helmuth Plessner and Arnold Gehlen, Michel Foucault and Louis Althusser, Sylvia Wynter and Donna Haraway, we will explore how notions of the human have been framed, contested, and redefined across the 20th and 21st centuries.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.