Transhumanism: a turn of the screw on Heidegger’s question concerning technology

Diana María Muñoz González

doi:10.17533/udea.ef.n61a10

Authors

Diana María Muñoz González University of San Buenaventura https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1298-8805

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.n61a10

Keywords:

Heidegger, transhumanism, humanism, technology, human body

Abstract

The so-called transhumanist project is anthropotechnic and aims at the enhancement of human physical and cognitive capabilities through the employment of new technologies. Nevertheless, when viewed through the lens of Heidegger’s philosophy, the project appears to confirm his own view on modern technology. According to Heidegger, the essence of modern technology is to serve as an ontological framework in which beings are unconcealed as a totality of resources or stock items. Thus, the first part of this paper examines Heidegger’s approach to technology in order to cast light upon the deep danger of dehumanization entailed by transhumanism. In the second section, however, the ability of Heidegger’s thought to cope with the transhumanist danger is put into question, since it fails to conceive of the essential living character of human being.

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Author Biography

Diana María Muñoz González, University of San Buenaventura

Doctor in Philosophy from the Paris VIII University (France), with Undergraduate and Master's degrees in Philosophy from the National University of Colombia. She is currently a Full-time Professor at the University of San Buenaventura, Bogotá campus, in the Master's Degree in Contemporary Philosophy and the Doctorate in Humanities: Humanism and Person –DHUPE–, a program in which she works as director of the emphasis on philosophy called: “Humanism and antihumanism in contemporary philosophy ”. She is an Associate Researcher at Colciencias and leads the research group "Devenir" (A1). Some of her publications are: Books: Arte y verdad. La experiencia estética en la hermenéutica de Hans-Georg Gadamer (2013), ¿El fin del hombre? (2016) (Ed.) y Humanismo en la era de la técnica (2018) (Ed.). Articles: "T“Las humanidades en tiempos del Antropoceno” (2019), “Deconstrucción y teología negativa" (2014), "El texto como modelo de alteridad” (2014) and “Nietzsche y los filósofos de la diferencia” (2013).

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