Are Cyborgs Persons?

This book presents argumentation for an evolutionary continuity between human persons and cyborg persons, based on the thought of Joseph Margolis. Relying on concepts of cultural realism and post-Darwinism, Aleksandra ukaszewicz Alcaraz redefines the notion of the person, rather than a human, and discusses the various issues of human body enhancement and online implants transforming modes of perception, cognition, and communication. She argues that new kinds of embodiment should not make acquiring the status of the person impossible, and different kinds of embodiments may be accepted socially and culturally. She proposes we consider ethical problems of agency and responsibility, critically approaching vitalist posthuman ethics, and rethinking the metaphysical standing of normativity, to create space for possible cyborgean ethics that may be executed in an Extended Republic of Humanity.

Argues for an evolutionary continuity between human persons and cyborg persons Aims to reclaim the term 'cyborg,' arguing that the metaphorical usage fails to pick up on technologically driven changes in human embodiment Proposes we create space for the possibility of cyborgean ethics

Auteur

Aleksandra ukaszewicz Alcaraz is Associate Professor in College of Visual Arts at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland. Her research is in the fields of social philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophical aesthetics, and theory of culture and art.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. Evolutionary Continuity between Human Person and Cyborg Person.- 3. Semiotic Approach to Person and Cyborg Person.- 4. Person in a Social and Technological World.- 5. New Forms of Embodiment.- 6. Cyborg and Material Communication.- 7. Vitalist, Posthuman, and Environmental Ethics.- 8. Possibility of Cyborgean Ethics and Politics.- 9. Conclusions for Future.