POL381H1S L5101

Topics in Political Theory

The "End" of Humanity

Themes

This course examines the question of what it means to be human in an era when that concept’s traditional boundaries are increasingly porous. Deep ecologists claim that humans are merely co-equal members of the biotic community, sociobiologists see humans in an evolutionary continuity with the rest of nature, the Great Ape Project proclaims the equality of simians and humans, and the leaders of the Genomic Revolution offer the promise of near limitless genetic reconstitution of the nano-materiality of the human body. What then does the concept “human” mean, and what values or norms does it contain within it? Should we give in to endless re-creation of ourselves? Or have we reached a point that is unique in our evolution, given that technology now presents us not just with an accelerated pace of change, but with a kind of change so radical that our entire way of being is threatened?

Texts

Martin Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology”; Donna Harraway, “Cyborg Manifesto”; Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Inhuman; Michel Serres, Parasite; Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am; Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus; Bruno Latour, Politics of Nature; E.O. Wilson, Sociobiology; Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution; Michael Warner, The Trouble with Normal.

Prerequisites

POL200Y1 or POL200Y5 or (POLC70H3 and POLC71H3)