Posthumanism

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This article concerns the European philosophical extension of humanism. The term posthumanism is also used as a synonym for transhumanism, especially in the United States.

In literary and critical theory, posthumanism, meaning beyond humanism, is a European emergent philosophy and is the dominant rational, secular humanist philosophy. It transcends the ideas and images of the world of classical Renaissance humanism to correspond more closely to the 21st century's ideas of scientific knowledge. It mainly differentiates from classical humanism in that it restores the stature that had been made of humanity to one of many natural species. According to this claim, humans have no inherent rights to destroy nature or set themselves above it in ethical considerations a priori.

Human knowledge is also reduced to a less controlling position, previously seen as the defining aspect of the world. The limitations and fallibility of human intelligence are confessed, even though that doesn't mean abandoning the strong rational tradition of humanism.

Performance philosopher Shannon Bell argues that posthumanism attempts "to develop through enactment new understandings of the self and other, essence, consciousness, intelligence, reason, agency, intimacy, life, embodiment, identity and the body."

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