The Crisis of Humanism and Emerging Post-Anthropocentric Epoch: A Personalistic View

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2020.4.2.099

Abstract

The present article is devoted to a discussion of the crisis of humanism and prospects for a post-anthropocentric society. The evolution of humanism is traced as a broad cultural phenomenon that affects all spheres of society. The author sets out to show that the crisis of humanism is associated not only with philosophical criticism from the perspectives of trans- and post-humanism, but also with the prospects for a society in which humanistic ideas about a person as a bodily- and mentally-autonomous being continue to predominate. In this regard, various ethical and philosophical concepts are considered that seemingly point to the inevitability of going beyond the limits of anthropocentrism. However, one particular problem that emerges is either ignored by many authors or remains to be properly resolved. This problem is associated with the prospect of the loss of evolving humankind's capacity for empathy and understanding, thereby threatening the destruction of the fragile global lifeworld. The destruction of this lifeworld is fraught with alienation and the multiplication of planetary risks. The author proposes that the problem of unpredictability and the danger of manmade interventions in human nature can best be approached by considering the hypothetical posthuman in close relationship with the social whole. This philosophical “optics” can be borrowed from the philosophy of personalism, understood here as the set of philosophical attitudes that affirm the highest value of a personality as a transcending being, involved in a timeless dialogue with other personalities.

Author Biography

Dmitriy A. Davydov, Institute for Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Dmitriy A. Davydov, Candidate of Political Science, Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Dmitriy conducts research in the fields of political theory and philosophy. His research interests are focused on global social and political transformations, concepts of a post-capitalist society, problems associated with technologies for changing human nature, as well as the philosophy of personalism.

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Published
2020-07-09
How to Cite
Davydov, D. (2020). The Crisis of Humanism and Emerging Post-Anthropocentric Epoch: A Personalistic View. Changing Societies & Personalities, 4(2), 220–247. doi:10.15826/csp.2020.4.2.099
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 4, No. 2 (2020)
Section
Opening the Debate