Knowra Posthumanism Posthumanism Posthumanism critiques humanism’s image of a self-sufficient, exceptional human subject and examines how humans are entangled with technology, animals, and other forms of life.
Humanism : A tradition that emphasizes human dignity, reason, agency, and the value of human life. Posthumanism questions humanism’s universal image of the autonomous, rational human.
Transhumanism : A movement advocating technological enhancement of human capacities and, potentially, human transformation. Unlike many posthumanist critiques, transhumanism often seeks to extend human mastery through technology.
Donna Haraway : An American scholar whose work examines science, feminism, animals, and human–technology relations. Her cyborg and companion-species figures unsettle clean boundaries between humans and others.
Cyborg : A being whose bodily functions are integrated with technological components or systems. The cyborg makes hybrid human–machine identity a concrete challenge to fixed boundaries.
Cyborg Manifesto : Donna Haraway’s 1985 essay using the cyborg to challenge boundaries in feminism, science, and politics. It turns hybrid identity into a pointed critique of purity, origin, and fixed categories.
Anthropocentrism : The view that humans are central or more significant than other beings. Posthumanist thought challenges human-centered accounts of value and knowledge.
Critical Posthumanism : An approach that critiques humanist assumptions about the autonomous, universal human subject. It names the strand most directly concerned with dismantling humanism’s inherited categories.
Rosi Braidotti : A philosopher whose work develops a feminist, affirmative account of the posthuman subject. She presents posthumanism as an alternative to the individualist humanist subject.
Animal Studies : An interdisciplinary field examining animals’ lives and their representation in human societies and cultures. It applies posthumanist critique to the human–animal boundary and its ethical consequences.
Companion Species : Animals and humans whose lives and histories are shaped through close relations with one another. Haraway’s concept shows how human identities and practices emerge through interspecies relationships.
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