Post-Humanism

Conventional approaches to qualitative research seek to distill and capture meaning through a sequence of determined, progressive methodological steps that serve to synthesize difference toward a series of overarching claims regarding human experience. This approach reifies contemporary neoliberal values and, as a consequence, short-circuits any possibility for progressive social change. Through conventional research practices, the principles of security, schizoid, and statistical society accelerate, extending normalizing processes of governmentality, and producing a docile citizenry adverse to key elements of an engaged democracy. In such circumstance, risk is identified as the production of findings that are ambiguously defined, not attending to values of certainty and generalizable outcomes. As a consequence, conventional methodological practices fail to engage the postmodern condition—fragmented experiences with inconclusive outcomes are displaced by methodologies bent on merging difference into foreclosed meaning.

Contrary to conventional approaches to research, post-foundational orientations emphasize relational logics that maintain difference within the inquiry project itself. A provocative example of this extends from newly materialist approaches to qualitative inquiry that emphasizes the productive possibilities inherent in difference and, as such, displace the simplified dialectical reasoning of conventional approaches in favor of more dialogic recognition of diffractive patterning. In this sense, open-ended difference makes possible previously unrecognized (even unthought) possibilities for being otherwise. As such, newly materialist approaches to inquiry manifest alternative ontological and epistemological practices that are not available to the conventional methodologist; they make possible an open-ended vision of the future that is necessary for radical democratic action. Furthermore, the fluid nature of such methodologies align well with Foucault’s explication of parrhesia, a means of truth-making that creates new possibilities for becoming otherwise. The intersection of newly materialist methodologies with parrhesia challenges methodologists to risk the very relations that secure their expertise, establishing a moral challenge to the impact of past practice on the possibilities inherent in the future.

Keywords: risk, truth, truth-making, parrhesia, qualitative, inquiry, research, governmentality, methodology, New Materialism, schizoid, risk, security

Neste ensaio, proponho pensar em possibilidades de leitura de obras literárias que não se restrinjam à tradição hermenêutica e abram espaço para uma vivência afetiva da literatura, isto é, para seus efeitos sensoriais, perceptuais e emocionais. Para tanto, entendo que relexões fundamentadas no comportamento e nas possibilidades de consciência animal possam ser um ponto de partida para se pensar a configuração de um espaço híbrido na consciência, em um imaginário somático e cinético que alargue a definição e os horizontes da representação literária.
Palavras-chave: pós-humanismo, etologia, imaginação, experiência literária, afeto

In this essay, I aim to reflect upon possibilities of literary experiences that are not restricted to the hermeneutic tradition and thus provide space for an affective take on literature, namely through sensorial, perceptual and emotional effects. With that in mind, I propose that poetic lucubrations based on animal consciousness could be a starting point in the configuration of a hybrid conscious state, in a somatic and kinetic imaginary, which then might broaden both the notion and the horizons of literary representation.

This article draws upon findings from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Chilean school to explore how the effects of globally circulating ADHD medications emerge within the localized contexts of everyday users. An analysis of observations of children on ADHD medications within classroom settings is developed which challenges the assumption, pervasive within biomedical paradigms, that the effects of such medications can be understood as resulting directly from their chemical properties and biological modes of action. Our case study highlights the significance of multiple, interacting determinants of drug effects in an everyday setting, focusing in particular on classroom dynamics, teacher–student relations, and the agency of children taking the medications. We conclude that while ADHD medications may act in part by altering physiological processes, an adequate account of their effects requires that analytic attention extends to the sociomaterial contexts in which medications and users are embedded.

The Lukács's theory of the actuality of the revolution sets out from the thesis of the " presence of the revolution ". In the first part of the study I argue by the fact that the works of Lukács in the twenties can also be interpreted as the attempt of drafting the revolution doctrine in which the Hungarian philosopher is studying the relation of the dimension of the so-called daily, the world historical and that of the constituent actuality to each other. In the second part of the study I put the question whether this frame of notions could be a starting point for the analysing position today. In my opinion, the precondition of this is that the original point of view of the " world historical actuality " should change to " historical actuality " : the presence of the revolution does not mean for me the theoretical hypothesis of the existence of a possible/probable world historical option to be realised, just the force and unavoidableness to change and revolutionize the existing political order. In the third part I try to interpret the phenomenon of the new millennium with the assistance of Lukács' categories of the actuality of the revolution. In my opinion the present situation can be described along the theoretical scheme of the " three revolutions/the three Lefts ". In the course of this (1) I interpret the three situations that in the historical meaning result in the force of becoming revolutionised, the three inertial forces that weigh heavily on the existing political order. In parallel with this (2) I introduce the constituent logics, along which the revolutionary subjects of our days are developing and are crystallizing out – in the form of the reflexive Left, the global Left and future Left. I analyse it in details how the big political blocks of the " avoidance of changing " and the " changing " that oppose each other are being developed. According to the conclusion of the study, the revolution which is awaited by the Marxists (so did Lukács too), will never arrive any more – however, the revolution theory of Lukács can offer some help to the " big start again " .

The Lukács's theory of the actuality of the revolution sets out from the thesis of the " presence of the revolution ". In the first part of the study I argue by the fact that the works of Lukács in the twenties can also be interpreted as the attempt of drafting the revolution doctrine in which the Hungarian philosopher is studying the relation of the dimension of the so-called daily, the world historical and that of the constituent actuality to each other. In the second part of the study I put the question whether this frame of notions could be a starting point for the analysing position today. In my opinion, the precondition of this is that the original point of view of the " world historical actuality " should change to " historical actuality " : the presence of the revolution does not mean for me the theoretical hypothesis of the existence of a possible/probable world historical option to be realised, just the force and unavoidableness to change and revolutionize the existing political order. In the third part I try to interpret the phenomenon of the new millennium with the assistance of Lukács' categories of the actuality of the revolution. In my opinion the present situation can be described along the theoretical scheme of the " three revolutions/the three Lefts ". In the course of this (1) I interpret the three situations that in the historical meaning result in the force of becoming revolutionised, the three inertial forces that weigh heavily on the existing political order. In parallel with this (2) I introduce the constituent logics, along which the revolutionary subjects of our days are developing and are crystallizing out – in the form of the reflexive Left, the global Left and future Left. I analyse it in details how the big political blocks of the " avoidance of changing " and the " changing " that oppose each other are being developed. According to the conclusion of the study, the revolution which is awaited by the Marxists (so did Lukács too), will never arrive any more – however, the revolution theory of Lukács can offer some help to the " big start again " .

Within literature one can by analysis unlock the desires, passions, fears, and dreams of humanity; literature, therefore, plays an important role in the exploration of what it means to be human. In these cultural outputs, the human experience is captured in a manifold of ways, each genre and each story with its own unique contribution. From an existentialist perspective, we can read in literature questions on the freedom and meaning of human existence. Existentialism in the Science Fiction genre is prolific; tropes such as alternative realities, simulated worlds and artificial intelligence present unique opportunities to ask existential questions – questions such as: what is the meaning of life? What does it mean to live freely?

In this essay, I compare Karel Čapek’s R.U.R (1920), Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot (1950), and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep (1968) in and effort to show how robots are used to ask challenging questions surrounding the essence of man, the question as to what we are, by challenging all our ideas of what it means to be human. I will specifically be looking at how they undermine Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea of humans being distinct in their existence preceding their essence as presented in his 1946 'Existentialism is a Humanism'.

La vida mediatizada a través de la Pantalla constituye el modelo de vida socialmente dominante en el infocapitalismo. Entre las personas y la Pantalla, que es ubicua, frecuentemente se establecen vínculos de rasgos simbióticos. La Pantalla, a modo de prótesis senso-cognitiva, aparece integrada a la persona. Embelesados, aceptamos con naturalidad iniciativas tecnocientíficas que aspiran a la creación artificial de un híbrido de humano y máquina. Un ente post.humano, superador del " obsoleto " homo sapiens en cuanto capacidad física y mental Entretanto, asistimos pasivamente a la reafirmación de un mundo dual, crecientemente desigual, en el que la aspiración posthumanista convive con la muerte prematura de miles de personas de todas las edades cada año como consecuencia de la miseria y de la violencia política y/o religiosa. La educación se ve interpelada por estas macrovisiones del mundo que parecen igualar al ser humano con una máquina, intercambiable, mejorable y desechable. El desafío de la educación es enseñar a comprender la condición humana con el objetivo de ayudar a mejorar la vida de todas las personas que viven en la Tierra. Enseñar que, a diferencia de las máquinas, cada ser humano es único e irrepetible.

This conference paper reflects on attitudes and assumptions with regards to surveillance, and the position of technology within society, through an examination of Matthew de Abaitua’s novel The Red Men. Within the novel, the corporation Monad embark on a project which involves the creation of Red Men, self-aware simulations of prestigious businessmen and women; yet, these synthetic intelligences use unethical surveillance to affect their social standing within the company. Alongside this, another project emerges called Redtown, which is the attempted simulation of an entire town in Maghull with the intention of utilizing the simulated town as a surveillance network to test government initiatives. Thus, it is clear that Matthew de Abaitua’s novel The Red Men imagines a world where there is a confrontation between man and machine, where the nature of the soul and patterns of information seem to be indistinguishable. Surveillance therefore emerges as a mode in which we can perceive the paradigmatic shift in man/machine relations through which humanity is continuously being cast in technological, functional roles.

A review essay of Rachel C. Lee, The Exquisite Corpse of Asian America: Biopolitics, Biosociality, and Posthuman Ecologies (New York: New York University Press, 2014), and Alexander G. Weheliye, Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories of the Human (Durham: Duke University Press, 2014).

Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences 25, No. 1-2 (Fall/Winter 2016)

When Anglo-Saxon warriors buckled on gem encrusted, intricately wrought gold arms and armor, they did not merely transform their appearance, but shifted their fundamental ontology. We consider objects from the Staffordshire Hoard as embodiments of fah and aelf-sciéne, specifically Anglo-Saxon ideas of visual splendor, and the modern notion of bling in order to excavate their role in the transformation of men into posthuman teratological wonders. We strive to imagine the hoard not as a series of objects but as embodied apparatuses inextricable from those who wore them and from the violence they were intended to fend off, yet accelerate.

This writing, "The Conscious Use of the 'Mirror Effect': Co-Creating a Utopian World," appears in Chapter V: Looking Inward of Arthur Shostak's edited book, Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping A Better World. "Given your interest in exploring, assessing, and possibly championing one or another of the viable ideas in this book, you undoubtedly recognize the strategic importance of your own well-being. Our advocacy is conditioned by our own personal health--physical, mental, and spiritual. Accordingly, many of us welcome sage advice on how to assess and improve our inner being, especially as it also enables us to strengthen our interpersonal relationships. The essay below offers twenty-four hallmarks of any who would help advance viable utopian ideas (a 'conscious co-creator' of society). Creative and sustained efforts we might make to measure up would seem highly advisable.--Editor"

This article is based on multi-sited ethnography that traced a dynamic network of actors (activists, policy-makers, health care systems, pharmaceutical companies) and actants (viruses and medicines) that shaped South African women’s access to, and embodiment of, antiretroviral therapies (ARVs). Using actor network theory and post-humanist performativity as conceptual tools, the article explores how bodies become the meeting place for HIV and ARVs, or non-human actants. The  ndings centre around two linked sets of narratives that draw the focus out from the body to situate the body in relation to South Africa’s shifting biopolitical landscape. The  rst set of narratives articulate how people perceive the intra-action of HIV and ARVs in their sustained vitality. The second set of narratives articulate the complex embodiment of these actants as a form biopolitical precarity. These narratives  ow into each other and do not represent a totalising view of the e ects of HIV and ARVs in the lives of the people with whom I worked. The positive e ects of ARVs (as unequivocally essential for sustaining life) were implicit and the precarious vitality of the people in this ethnography was fundamental. However, a related and emergent set of struggles become salient during the study that complicate a view of ARVs as a ‘techno x’. These emergent struggles were biopolitical, and they related  rst to the intra-action of HIV and ARVs ‘within’ the body; and second, to the ‘outside’ socio-economic context in which people’s bodies were situated.