Beyond Human: From Animality to Transhumanism

<em>Beyond Human</em> investigates what it means to call ourselves human beings in relation to both our distant past and our possible futures as a species, and the questions this might raise for our relationship with the myriad species with which we share the planet. Drawing on insights from zoology, theology, cultural studies and aesthetics, an international line-up of contributors explore such topics as our origins as reflected in early cave art in the upper Palaeolithic through to our prospects at the forefront of contemporary biotechnology. In the process, the book positions "the human" in readiness for what many have characterized as our transhuman or posthuman future. For if our status as rational animals or "animals that think" has traditionally distinguished us as apparently superior to other species, this distinction has become increasingly problematic. It has come to be seen as based on skills and technologies that do not distinguish us so much as position us as transitional animals. It is the direction and consequences of this transition that is the central concern of <em>Beyond Human</em>. >

<em>Beyond Human</em> investigates what it means to call ourselves human beings in relation to both our distant past and our possible futures as a species, and the questions this might raise for our relationship with the myriad species with which we share the planet. Drawing on insights from zoology, theology, cultural studies and aesthetics, an international line-up of contributors explore such topics as our origins as reflected in early cave art in the upper Palaeolithic through to our prospects at the forefront of contemporary biotechnology. In the process, the book positions "the human" in readiness for what many have characterized as our transhuman or posthuman future. For if our status as rational animals or "animals that think" has traditionally distinguished us as apparently superior to other species, this distinction has become increasingly problematic. It has come to be seen as based on skills and technologies that do not distinguish us so much as position us as transitional animals. It is the direction and consequences of this transition that is the central concern of <em>Beyond Human</em>. >

List of figures \ Contributors \ Preface Sean Cubitt \ Acknowledgements \ Introduction Steven Shakespeare, Claire Molloy and Charlie Blake \ Part I: Animality: Boundaries and Definitions \ 1. Incidents in the Animal Revolution Ron Broglio \ 2.Being a Known Animal Claire Molloy \ 3. Beyond the Pain Principle Giovanni Aloi \ Part II: Representing Animality \ 4. What We Can Do: Art Methodologies and Parities in Meeting Bryndis Snæbjornsdóttir and Mark Wilson \ 5. Horse-Crazy Girls: Alternative Embodiments and Socialities Natalie Corinne Hansen \ 6. Writing Relations: the Lobster, the Orchid, the Primrose, You, Me, Chaos and Literature Lucile Desblache \ Part III: Thinking Beyond the Divide \ 7. Affective Animal: Bataille, Lascaux and the Mediatization of the Sacred Felicity Colman \ 8. Levinas, Bataille and the Theology of Animal Life Donald L. Turner \ 9. Degrees of ‘Freedom': Humans as Primates in Dialogue with Hans urs von Balthasar Celia Deane-Drummond \ Part IV: Animal- Human- Machine- God \ 10. Inhuman Geometries: Aurochs and Angels and The Refuge of Art Charlie Blake \ 11. Articulating the Inhuman: God, Animal, Machine Steven Shakespeare \ 12. Transforming the Human Body Gareth Jones and Maja Whitaker \ Index