posthumanizm

Posthumanizm, often rendered in English as posthumanism, is an approach in philosophy and the humanities that questions the centrality of the human in knowledge, ethics, and culture. It rejects rigid boundaries between human, animal, and machine and emphasizes the entanglement of humans with technologies, ecosystems, and non-human actors. Rather than a fixed stage of human perfectibility, the concept treats humanity as historically constructed and contingent.

The term and field emerged from late 20th-century critical theory, drawing on feminism, animal studies, cybernetics, and science and technology studies. Prominent voices include Donna Haraway, who argued for a cyborg as a challenge to traditional identities; N. Katherine Hayles, who analyzes the role of information; and Rosi Braidotti, who develops a theory of the posthuman subject. Scholarship often combines philosophy, literary criticism, and cultural studies.

Key themes include the decentering of the human subject, the agency of non-human elements, and ethical questions about responsibility toward animals, ecosystems, and artificial agents. Posthumanizm investigates how technologies, media, and biotechnologies reshape perception, embodiment, and social power. It also engages questions of care, vulnerability, and justice in a world of human-nonhuman entanglements.

Relation to transhumanism: while transhumanism generally aims to enhance human capacities through technology, posthumanizm critiques the assumption that improvement should keep a human-centered telos and instead explores the broader ethical and political implications of intelligence, life, and agency across species and artefacts.

Critics argue that the field can be too diffuse or politically complacent, though supporters see it as a productive framework for rethinking ethics, science, and culture in an increasingly technologically mediated world.