Posthuman Philosophy in 5 Minutes
A quick and easy guide to a quietly trending new theory of human identity
Ever wonder what it’s like to be a thing? I’ll forgive you if you haven’t. Believe it or not, though, describing the experiences of things — boats, pencils, stars, universes, leptons, pond scum, you name it — is something of an intellectual hobbyhorse for American philosopher Ian Bogost.
That’s because Bogost contends that humans should not be the principal subject of philosophical inquiry. In Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s like to be a Thing, Bogost argues that humans constitute only a minute fraction of the “things” in the universe but have nevertheless claimed the undivided attention of western philosophy since Plato first pondered what it means to be a good human.
Furthermore, while the Humanist ideals of our philosophical tradition have inspired progress on many fronts, human-centered ethics, norms, values, and politics have also come with dire consequences.
One reason why is because to define the human — perhaps the central project of western philosophy — is to also define what is not human, and who. Thus, the Nazis dehumanized Jews ideologically and thereby rationalized their torment and mass extermination.
