Separate Substances and the Post-Human. An Attempt to Confront Aquinas’ Thought with the Doctrine of Contemporary Transhumanism Cover Image

Substancje oddzielone i postczłowiek. Próba konfrontacji myśli Akwinaty z doktryną współczesnego transhumanizmu
Separate Substances and the Post-Human. An Attempt to Confront Aquinas’ Thought with the Doctrine of Contemporary Transhumanism

Author(s): Michał Ziółkowski
Subject(s): Metaphysics, Philosophy of Middle Ages, Contemporary Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Published by: Naukowe Towarzystwo Tomistyczne
Keywords: separated substances; St. Thomas; Plato; transhumanism; mind transfer; posthuman; gnosticism;

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to compare St Thomas Aquinas’ concept of separated substances with the concept of the post-human present in the doctrine of contemporary transhumanism. Separate substances in Aquinas’ doctrine are angelic beings belonging to a metaphysical description of reality that is consistent with Christian Revelation. In contrast, the concept of the post-human is the content of futuristic transhumanist projects that assume the possibility of separating the human mind, or consciousness, from the organic cerebral substrate and transferring it via an interface to cyberspace. The article shows how schemes concerning the ontological constitution of entities from a metaphysical description of reality are transposed into a post-metaphysical transhumanist narrative, where the category of being and subject are also given to the products of the latest technologies. The author points out that the irrational character of such projects and the ideological appropriation of metaphysical schemas, results from the connection between transhumanism and gnosticism, whose representatives tried to imitate Christian doctrine.

  • Issue Year: 1/2023
  • Issue No: 12
  • Page Range: 249-265
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish
Toggle Accessibility Mode