Den mänskliga horisonten har alltid varit föremål för expandering. Sökandet efter att finna ny potential i vårt biologiska pussel har varit, och är, något som ständigt utvecklas. En kontroversiell gren i detta sökande utgörs av transhumanism. I denna uppsats tillämpas den teori och ideologi som utgör transhumanism, och återknyts övergripande till filmerna ”Robocop” och ”Gattaca” då dessa filmer belyser punkter som berör denna teori. Frågor som väcks utifrån denna teori är olika aspekter av makt, vilket knyts samman med en marxistisk teori om makten, men även utifrån Michel Foucaults biopolitik. Analysen avslöjar att det finns många bekymmer med transhumanismen, samtidigt som den inte på något sätt är en detaljerad redovisning av alla perspektiv av teorin – den är diskutabel, men tåls att kritiseras utifrån dess olika grenar och användningsområden. Studien utförs via en kvalitativ forskningsmetod, som fokuserar på frågeställningar anknutna till filmerna och teorierna, och där egna tolkningar utgör det resultat som framställs i uppsatsen.

This study uses content analysis of newspaper articles and athlete biographical/autobiographical sources to examine the constructions of masculinity of male and female athletes at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, China. Based on the socially constructed tension between disability and masculinity and the connections between sport and masculinity, this study sought examples that support or challenge the portrayal of Paralympic athletes in hegemonic masculine terms. This study finds that in the majority of cases, both sets of data sources reflects and/or reinforces the association between sport and hegemonic masculinity. This public display of masculinity indicates the athletes’ attempt to attain mainstream acceptance and legitimacy as “real” athletes as much as it does a rejection of a collective disability identity. The few instances of rejection and reformulation of masculinity come from examples in which the realities of living with impairments are insurmountable barriers to attaining hegemonic masculinity.

This study uses content analysis of newspaper articles and athlete biographical/autobiographical sources to examine the constructions of masculinity of male and female athletes at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, China. Based on the socially constructed tension between disability and masculinity and the connections between sport and masculinity, this study sought examples that support or challenge the portrayal of Paralympic athletes in hegemonic masculine terms. This study finds that in the majority of cases, both sets of data sources reflects and/or reinforces the association between sport and hegemonic masculinity. This public display of masculinity indicates the athletes’ attempt to attain mainstream acceptance and legitimacy as “real” athletes as much as it does a rejection of a collective disability identity. The few instances of rejection and reformulation of masculinity come from examples in which the realities of living with impairments are insurmountable barriers to attaining hegemonic masculinity.

The Second Council of Nicaea, in 787 AD, marked the end of iconoclasm, while in 843 the Treaty of Verdun laid the foundations of Europe. With these agreements, a sustained period of imageless iconolatry was initiated. However, the veneration of icons was based on the absolute worship of matter and form, which replaced the prime spiritual concept of ‘image and likeness’. Millennia of research and thought resulted in imageless representations of natural phenomena. Pushing aside the topology of the image and its sign, the intelligent man, from the Age of Reason and onward, considered himself as an auto-authorised and teleological-free entity. To this end, he maximised the intelligibility of his space by designing an all-inclusive Cartesian cocoon in which to secure his mass and form. Yet, there he found his pet (Schrodinger’s Cat) to be both dead and alive, and the apple, still forbidden, had become a bouncing ball, serving as evidence of gravity. Hence, this intelligent design, by default, carries the residual fear of Manichaean and Augustinian devils, and is deemed to have converted to a de-sign crisis. Relying on literature sources, this dissertation examines two dominant models that govern human cognition and the production of knowledge. Despite remarkable scientific achievements which resulted, the aftermath of human progress was, among others, the maximisation of residual fear, to such an extent that voracious black holes devour all matter. Inaugurating the transhumanist period, the human becomes a Manchurian Candidate, still an upgraded ape and a victim of his own nature in the Anthropocene. In an attempt to overcome this de-sign crisis, the research presented in this thesis aims to address the necessity of the restoration of icons, as evidenced by Byzantine art and philosophy but neglected in the name of human supremacy and imperialism. This thesis elucidates Classical and Late Antiquity manuscripts in an effort to set a new ‘restore point’, endeavouring to launch the image in the current organosilicon substances; examples from Scripture narratives as well as from visual arts contribute to this effort. The proposed concluding scheme is the Module of Theōria, which reflects the major transhumanistic elements such as transmutation, interaction and fluidity. Theōria functions through noetic mechanisms, using ‘image and likeness’ as the prime carriers of knowledge. The anticipated outcome is to reveal a human investment in a pro-nature incorruptibility with the advent of Theōria in the field of Τechnoetics, where one can administer ‘image and likeness’ to gain capital liquidity.

LIMA, Jefferson Pinheiro. A doutrina transhumanista como moral transcendente & a filosofia de Deleuze & Guattari como resistência ética imanente na contemporaneidade. 2017. 266f. Dissertação (Mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, Fortaleza (CE), 2017. / Submitted by sebastiao barroso (jrwizard2209@hotmail.com) on 2017-10-05T12:02:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jplima.pdf: 2142223 bytes, checksum: 40fb00af3d9578e534591aa57bb00fb5 (MD5) / Rejected by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br), reason: Estamos devolvendo a dissertação de JEFFERSON PINHEIRO LIMA para fazer as alterações indicadas pela bibliotecária Eliene Vieira de Moura: margens, espaçamento das folhas pré-textuais, sumário (formatação), espaçamento das citações longas, citações (escolher autor-data ou notas de rodapé), referências (corrigir), que estão em desacordo com a ABNT. Qualquer dúvida sobre as alterações, falar com a referida bibliotecária na Biblioteca das Casas de Cultura Estrangeira/UFC. on 2017-10-09T12:20:17Z (GMT) / Submitted by sebastiao barroso (jrwizard2209@hotmail.com) on 2017-11-06T12:48:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jplima.pdf: 2101023 bytes, checksum: 635975d93b702b6b6a3b54dceb27ffc5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-11-07T18:24:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jplima.pdf: 2101023 bytes, checksum: 635975d93b702b6b6a3b54dceb27ffc5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-07T18:24:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jplima.pdf: 2101023 bytes, checksum: 635975d93b702b6b6a3b54dceb27ffc5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / This research seeks to present the post-humanist doctrine, conceptualise it, and present how this way of thinking has been utilising high-end current techno-scientific development (digital technology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence) as a promise of mankind‟s progressive improvement, having in its sights the total domination over life on the planet. Through the presentation of the research and discourse of some of transhumanism‟s most prominent theoreticians, this research seeks to demonstrate how the transhumanist philosophy constitutes as morally transcending through the technical overcoming of senses. Furthermore, it also seeks to establish what is the transhumanist philosophy‟s relation with the powers of the State and with cognitive capitalism and what are the ethical dangers of such an association, especially given its projections of infinite and unlimited betterment of the so-called human characteristics (super anthropocentrism with pretensions of immortality. In order to problematise and suggest ways of resisting the transhumanist intent, the works of Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and Félix Guattari (19301992) form the basis of this endeavour. These authors, by offering us a philosophy that affirms a purely inherent mode of thought, provide us with their concepts of selftransformation and of the body without organs, for example; intensive ways of living, of experimenting singularising ethics, that are not limited to the totalising moral of mere extended life promised by the transhumanists. Deleuze and Guattari propose life not as something to be conserved and improved upon at any cost, but a life as a potent existence that resists, that combine with other unique forces of life, not human, not majoritarian (to become animal, become child, become aboriginal), that configurates itself with the outside; a finite and non-evolving minoritarian life, that does not allow itself to be seduced by the salvationist discourse of the end of all suffering and of the perfecting in obedience to the majoritarian power, here represented by transhumanism. / A presente pesquisa busca apresentar a doutrina transhumanista, conceituá-la e demonstrar como tal maneira de pensar vem se utilizando do atual desenvolvimento tecnocientífico de ponta (tecnologia digital, engenharia genética, nanotecnologia, inteligência artificial) como promessa de aprimoramento progressivo da humanidade, tendo em vista sua máxima dominação sobre a vida do planeta. Através da apresentação das pesquisas e dos discursos de alguns de seus teóricos eminentes, procura demonstrar como a filosofia transhumanista se constitui como moral transcendente, pela superação técnica do sensível. Investiga ainda qual a sua relação com os poderes de Estado e do capitalismo nomeado cognitivo, quais os perigos éticos de tal associação com suas projeções de melhoramento infinito e ilimitado das chamadas características humanas (super antropocentrismo com pretensões de imortalidade). De modo a problematizar e sugerir maneiras de resistir ao intento transhumanista, o trabalho se vale, sobretudo, da filosofia de Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) e de Félix Guattari (1930-1992). Os autores, ao oferecerem uma filosofia que afirma um modo de pensar puramente imanente, nos proporcionam com seus conceitos de devir e corpo sem órgãos, por exemplo, maneiras intensivas de viver, de experimentar éticas singularizantes, que não se bastam na moral totalizante da mera vida extensiva prometida pelos transhumanistas. Deleuze e Guattari afirmam a vida não como algo a ser conservado e melhorado a qualquer custo, mas uma vida como existência potente que resiste, que se compõe com outras forças de vida únicas, não humanas, não majoritárias (devir-animal, devir-criança, devir-índio), que se configura com o fora, vida minoritária finita não evolutiva, que não se deixa seduzir pelos discursos salvacionistas do fim de todo o sofrimento e do aperfeiçoamento em obediência ao poder majoritário aqui representado pelo transhumanismo.

Cette recherche intitulée DISCOURS IDENTITAIRE ARABO AFRICAIN: AL-FAYTŪRĪ ENTRE L'ARABITÉ ET L'AFRICANITÉ est une étude de cas qui tente de comprendre la diversité culturelle dans le milieu arabe. Les œuvres complètes d'al-Faytūrī illustrent comment l'africanité est aperçue dans cet environnement. Outre ce résumé, l'introduction générale, la méthodologie, la conclusion générale et les annexes, ce travail est composé de deux parties. La première est théorique. Elle est constituée de deux chapitres: chapitre de la bibliographie et celui de la description textuelle des œuvres d'al-Faytūrī. La seconde partie est analytique. Elle est constituée également de deux chapitres: le premier porte sur les théories interculturelles qui ont servi à l'interprétation des œuvres d'al-Faytūrī, le deuxième porte sur la discussion des thèmes constituant le discours identitaire arabo-africain de cet auteur. / This research entitled ARAB-AFRICAN IDENTITY SPEECH: AL-FAYTŪRĪ BETWEEN ARABISM AND AFRICANISM is a case study that seeks to understand the cultural diversity within the Arab environment. The complete works of al-Faytūrī illustrate how Africanness is seen in this environment. In addition to this summary, the general introduction, the methodology, the overall conclusion and appendices, this work is composed of two parts. The first is theoretical. It consists of two chapters: chapter one bibliography and textual description of the works of al-Faytūrī. The second part is analytical. It also consists of two sections: the first focuses on intercultural theories that were used in the interpretation of the works of al-Faytūrī, the second focuses on the discussion of themes constituting the Arab-African identity discourse by this author.

No description available.

This master thesis deals with the topic of the relationship between man and technology, which is represented by cyborg characters in visual culture. The aim is to create a stereotype of individual cyborg characters from selected cyber-punk works, on the basis of which I can reflect the vision and ideas of the relationship between the organic and technical in the future world. This work is divided into four chapters - the first chapter focuses on cyber-punk as a sub-genre of sci-fi, in the second I define the cyborg character and the postmodern theoretical background, which are related to the cyborg, in the third chapter I present the theoretical basis for the analysis of characters and specify methodological procedures, in the final chapter I analyze the individual works.

Transhumanism is a movement dedicated to radically changing the human condition through technology, including by extending lifespan in one of three ways: (1) a biological approach that focuses on reducing the effects of aging, (2) a cybernetic approach that focuses on replacing the body with mechanical equivalents, and (3) a digital approach that focuses on reproducing human minds within computers. This dissertation focuses on the third way, digital immortality, because digitality can serve as a framework for further human enhancement that goes beyond mere life-extension, and thus has nearly unlimited potential to transform the human condition, and also because some forms of digital immortality are already technologically feasible. The dissertation examines transhumanist ideas of digital immortality from three perspectives. First, it employs the lens of theological anthropology to evaluate transhumanist arguments for how and why it is possible to reconstruct a person’s behavior patterns, and perhaps consciousness itself, in a machine. Second, it uses the lens of eschatology to examine the relationship between these immortality scenarios and the technological singularity, including the rise of superintelligent artificial intelligence. Third, it applies the lens of the philosophy of history to examine transhumanist ideas of evolution and the necessity of perpetual cycles of human enhancement to keep pace with AI and future generations of posthumans. The dissertation uses the anthropologies, eschatologies, and philosophies of history constructed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Jürgen Moltmann to create a framework for comparing Christian theology and transhumanist philosophy. The dissertation concludes that the real conflict between Christian theology and transhumanism is over supernaturalism, the degree to which God intervenes and directs human activity in history. As a result, transhumanists can find common theological ground with Christian naturalists as they pursue the religiously charged questions that transhumanists are asking about the essential nature, purpose, and destiny of humanity.

In popular culture, the integration of mankind and technology is often a tale of experiments gone wrong. For a biohacker, however, “going wrong” is an integral part of the project to update the human body. This study takes aim at the subculture of biohacking through the lens of technology and gender. More specifically, the intersection of gender and class in masculinist and queer constructions of identity. Additionally the study examines the entanglement of risk, gender and the body in grinder practice. Transcripts from the internet forum biohack.me were downloaded and relevant parts were selected. Through discourse analysis, articulations were read in relation to gender, class and the corporeal. The reader is provided with an outline of a “grinder subject”. This is identified as the a product of an cyber culture built on an ideology of DIY and freedom of information. It presumes an essence of humanity, uninformed by gender and body politics, just waiting to be hacked. Masculinist constructions of such a discourse includes an underdog “man-of-action hero” as a rebellion against established elites, and a technological martyrdom. The study informs the reader on an ongoing identification process regarding the integration of body and technology, beyond traditional spaces such as the research hospital. The study confirms well-established feminist views on discourses about the body and technology as implicitly gender marked as masculine. Additionally, a reluctance to discuss politics of the body as well as a indifferent or negative view of queer voices in such a situation. A rebellion against institutionalised bio-power might theoretically blend well with a corporeal feminist critique on gender, but is instead trumped by fear of ridicule and ambitions of mainstream acceptance. However, the study observes a a glimmer of traditionally marginalised and queer folk speaking up about their experiences within a context of grinding. This also questions the notion that discussions of the body and technology assert a binary gender system. A feminist theoretical view on grinder practices requires a analysis of the body open to scrutiny, modification and harm. In discussing “aftercare”, a collective/individual management of risk emerges as a gendered cyborg concept, and the body as an essential agent in the grinder project. This is articulated through encouragement and concern when presented with failed grinder projects.This further supports the entangling of the body and the biohacker subject as a corporeal and gendered agent.