Transhumanism, the last breath of God: analysis of transhumanism project from posthumanism postmodernist philosophy

Abstract

This article proposes a critical view of the transhumanist ideology and its support to the supposed imminent and necessary technical enhancement towards a posthuman society. The concept of posthumanism is analyzed in order to articulate the critique. Posthumanism is understood in opposed ways by transhumanist authors and postmodern posthumanists. The analysis of both ways of  comprehending the overcoming of the human is useful because the contraposition shows that the transhumanist project is a new humanism. In this sense, and as a philosophy derived from the Enlightenment, transhumanism is a dangerous aspiration that: maintains an arrogant confidence in reason and technology, is deeply depoliticized, is necessarily based on the opposition to those  considered less human, and maintains at its core an individualistic liberalism and a utopian/eschatological vision of progress.