Posthumanist

Posthumanism is a philosophical and cultural movement that questions human-centered assumptions in ethics, politics, and knowledge. It seeks to decenter the human subject and to recognize the ongoing entanglement of humans with nonhuman agencies, including animals, technologies, and environments.

Originating in late 20th-century theory, posthumanism draws on feminist critique, poststructuralism, and science and technology studies. Key influences include Donna Haraway, whose Cyborg Manifesto blurred boundaries between human, animal, and machine, and Rosi Braidotti, who developed a framework of posthuman ethics and subjectivity.

Its central ideas include decentering human exceptionalism, relational ontology, and distributed agency across networks of people, objects, and ecological processes. It questions essentialist identities and emphasizes materiality, embodiment, and interdependence, urging ethics and politics that extend beyond human interests.

Scholars apply posthumanism across disciplines such as animal studies, literary theory, philosophy, and STS, informing debates on AI, robotics, bioethics, and environmental humanities. It contrasts with transhumanism, which aims to enhance human capacities, by focusing on relational conditions rather than singular human improvement.

Critics argue that some posthuman claims risk overextending agency or complicating political change, but the approach remains influential for rethinking knowledge, power, and responsibility in a technologically mediated world.