The question of disability in the post-human debate. Critical remarks (original) (raw)
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This paper examines the transhumanist approach to disability focusing on its defining feature: human enhancement. The study of what underlies the philosophy of enhancement allows to connect original humanism (lying at the foundations of modern human rights theory) with the transhumanist discourse. Both humanists and transhumanists, but particularly transhumanists, understand human nature in a way that discriminates against persons with disabilities. Diversity-based humanism comes in response to this, allowing to address the role of emerging technologies vis-à-vis disability.
Subjectivity, 2014
This article explores the human through critical disability studies and the theories of Rosi Braidotti. We ask: What does it mean to be human in the twenty-first century and in what ways does disability enhance these meanings? In addressing this question we seek to work through entangled connections of nature, society, technology, medicine, biopower and culture to consider the extent to which the human might be an outdated phenomenon, replaced by Braidotti's posthuman condition. We then introduce disability as a political category, an identity and a moment of relational ethics. Critical disability studies, we argue, are perfectly at ease with the posthuman because disability has always contravened the traditional classical humanist conception of what it means to be human. Disability also invites a critical analysis of the posthuman. We examine the ways in which disability and posthuman work together, enhancing and complicating one another in ways that raise important questions about the kinds of life and death we value. We consider three of Braidotti's themes in relation to disability: (i) Life beyond the self: Rethinking enhancement; (ii) Life beyond the species: Rethinking animal; (iii) Life beyond death: Rethinking death. We conclude by advocating a posthuman disability studies that responds directly to contemporary complexities around the human while celebrating moments of difference and disruption.
This paper explores the human through critical disability studies and the theories of Rosi Braidotti. We ask: what does it mean to be human in the 21st Century and in what ways does disability enhance these meanings? In addressing this question we seek to work through entangled connections of nature, society, technology, medicine, biopower and culture to consider the extent to which the human might be an outdated phenomenon, replaced by Braidotti’s posthuman condition. We then introduce disability as a political category, an identity and a moment of relational ethics. Critical disability studies, we argue, are perfectly at ease with the posthuman because disability has always contravened the traditional classical humanist conception of what it means to be human. Disability also invites a critical analysis of the posthuman. We examine the ways in which disability and posthuman work together, enhancing and complicating one another in ways that raise important questions about the kinds of life and death we value. We consider three of Braidotti’s themes in relation to disability: I. Life beyond the self: Rethinking enhancement; II. Life beyond the species: Rethinking animal; III. Life beyond death: Rethinking death. We conclude by advocating a posthuman disability studies that responds directly to contemporary complexities around the human whilst celebrating moments of difference and disruption
Humanity as a Contested Concept: Relations between Disability and ‘Being Human’
Social Inclusion, 2016
This editorial presents the theme and approach of the themed issue “Humanity as a Contested Concept: Relations between Disability and ‘Being Human’”. The way in which the concept of humanity is or must be related to disability is critically investigated from different disciplinary perspectives in the themed issue, which is, moreover, situated in the field of disability studies and related to discussions about posthumanism. The argument is made that humanity is a concept that needs to be constantly reflected upon from a disability studies perspective. Finally, the contributions of the themed issue are briefly outlined.
Does Transhumanism give birth to a new theory of disability ?
In this paper, I deal with the following questions: 1) What is transhumanism ? 2) Do transhumanist representations of disability in political writings, science-fiction litterature and films reveal the emergence of a new model of disability, I mean a theory of disability which could diverge in one way or another from those that have been already conceptualized in the disability studies? 3) Which are the non-empirical data, I mean the normative and conceptual elements which must be highlighted if one aims at understanding which theory of disability does transhumanism presuppose ? And finally, 4) in the face of an hypothetic emergent transhumanist model of disability, how would people with disabilities assess it ?
This book analyses recent moves in the debate over human enhancement from two different perspectives: moral philosophy and science. It contains not only a thorough consideration on the promise, limitations, and perils of biotechnological improvement, but also offers a lucid account of a systematic evolution of the idea of excellence from antiquity to the present-day project of the post-human condition. The book examines various approaches to key anthropological concepts such as agency, autonomy, practical rationality, and normativity, pointing out their relevance to philosophical and biomedical research. All these issues are addressed by scholars representing different fields of study including philosophy , law, biophysics, and cognitive science. They attempt to answer the question of whether biotechnological interventions may result in bringing about a better person.
The Bionic Body: Technology, Disability and Posthumanism
Body, Space & Technology , 2024
This paper looks at the new field of posthuman disability studies and its potential to provide a theoretical framework for critical theory's engagement with modern technologies. Historically, the human body, as represented and defined on stage and in art, has maintained a strictly defined visual integrity. Anything not shaped as 'human' was typically deemed monstrous (from hybrid mythological creatures to severely disabled 'elephant men'). Simultaneously, the category of 'human' was used to circumscribe the boundaries of belonging and the categories of valuation: some groups, including the disabled, were deemed 'sub-human' and designated to either be disposed of (as the carrier of 'life unworthy of life') or, if possible, to approximate the 'human' body. (Romanska 2019: 92-93). Until very recently, the goal of the prosthetics industry was to create limbs that would serve as visual stand-ins for missing limbs. Similarly, the technological capacities of prosthetic limbs were delineated by human capacities: the disabled were to be given as many 'abilities' as the non-disabled, but no more. However, this perception of what the disabled body can and should do has changed with technological progress: not only do the newest prosthetics often look as 'unhuman' as possible, but their capacities put into question the capacities and limits of the non-disabled body. All of these and other issues that have emerged in recent years at the crossroads of posthumanism, disability, and biomimicry have led to the development of posthuman disability studies, which tries to untangle and reconceptualize the ethical, legal, and philosophical boundaries of human enhancement, species belonging, sentiency, life and death, and human rights. The posthuman biomimicry and the prosthetic aspects of digital and AI technologies presuppose a form of disabling of the human body: a body without any connection to some type of machine is an inferior body. In this context, understanding the historical dynamics, critical, philosophical, and ethical debates that have dominated disability studies can provide a framework for how we reconceptualize our posthuman, hybrid future in which our existence with the machines that redefine previous hierarchies is inevitable. Thus, the paper proposes critical posthuman disability studies as a new analytical paradigm for recontextualization and exploration of the new modes of being in the Age of Tech.
Disability: a welfarist approach
Clinical Ethics, 2011
In this paper, we offer a new account of disability. According to our account, some state of a person's biology or psychology is a disability if that state makes it more likely that a person's life will get worse, in terms of his or her own wellbeing, in a given set of social and environmental circumstances. Unlike the medical model of disability, our welfarist approach does not tie disability to deviation from normal species' functioning, nor does it understand disability in essentialist terms. Like the social model of disability, the welfarist approach sees disability as a harmful state that results from the interaction between a person's biology and psychology and his or her surrounding environment. However, unlike the social model, it denies that the harm associated with disability is entirely due to social prejudice or injustice. In this paper, we outline and clarify the welfarist approach, answer common objections and illustrate its usefulness in addressing a range of difficult ethical questions involving disability.