The Incomplete Man. Patristic and Medieval Roots of Transhumanism

elective monographs

Transhumanism seems to be the extreme opposite of Christian orthodoxy, i.e. the contemporary doctrines commenting on the revelation with reference to the theological and philosophical tradition going back to the Church Fathers and developed by the thinkers of the Middle Ages. However, after a closer and unbiased look at the tradition, it is feasible to say that the transhumanists who claim that humanity needs to break free of the confinement imposed by the so-called laws of nature are in their outlook on man closer to the direction in which the Church Fathers developed Christian anthropology than the contemporary representatives of Christian theology who firmly defend these laws.

In the contemporary ideological debate concerning the character and aim of human nature, the transhumanist thought – initiated by thinkers such as Max More, Ray Kurzweil, and Donna Haraway – seems to be the extreme opposite of Christian orthodoxy, i.e. the contemporary doctrines commenting on the revelation with reference to the theological and philosophical tradition going back to the Church Fathers and developed by the thinkers of the Middle Ages. Today, many defenders of the tradition accuse transhumanism of undermining what they assume to be the fundamental rule of Christian humanism: the permanence of God-created human nature. In fact, transhumanism claims not only that man can transcend the human condition, but also that what enables man to do this is the inherent dynamism of “fluent” nature, and even that, through a culture-conditioned change, man can achieve the state of perfection associated previously only with the “divine”. To its Christian opponents, the transhumanist project seems then to represent a diabolical temptation, albeit veiled in scientific terms, to break the God-given laws of creation; a temptation parallel to Adam’s – to become like God.

The problem is that the transhumanists who claim that humanity needs to break free of the confinement imposed by the so-called laws of nature are in their outlook on man closer to the direction in which the Church Fathers developed Christian anthropology than the contemporary representatives of Christian theology who firmly defend these laws. The latter forget that Christian theology, though always advocating the magnificence of God-created human nature, in the beginning had also fought against Greek naturalism that claimed that very nature’s immutability.

In the course, I shall first present the features of naturalism, characteristic for archaic religions and to a great extent continued in Greek philosophy, and then I will show how it was transcended in Ancient and Medieval Christian thought. This in turn will enable me to discuss the question if and in what sense the theological-philosophical vision of man resulting from such transcending could be identified as the first form of the transhumanist idea in Western thought.

R. Kurzwiel, Nadchodzi osobliwość, Warszawa 2013;

M. Klichowski, Narodziny cyborgizacji, Poznań 2014,

M. Eliade, Mit wiecznego powrotu, Warszawa 1998

J. Taubes, Zachodnia eschatologia, Warszawa 2016

G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven, M. Schofield, Filozofia przedsokratejska, Warszawa 1999

Arystoteles, Fizyka

Arystoteles, Metafizyka

Platon, Dialogi

Plotyn, Enneady

Ireneusz z Lyonu, Adversus Haereses

Ireneusz z Lyonu, Wykład nauki apostolskiej

Atanazy Wielki, O wcieleniu Słowa

Tertulian, Przeciw Marcjanowi

Grzegorz z Nyssy, O stworzeniu człowieka

Orygenes, Homilie o Księdze Kapłańskiej

Orygenes, O zasadach

Augustyn, Państwo Boże

Bernard z Clairvaux, De gratia et libero arbitro

Bernard z Clairvaux, Sermones super Cantica Canticorum

Bonawentura, Konferencje o sześciu dniach stworzenia

Tomasz z Akwinu, Suma Teologiczna

Mistrz Eckhart, Kazania

Roger Bacon, Dzieło większe

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

Ch. Schonborn, Przebóstwienie. Życie i śmierć, Poznań, 2001

M. Coune, Grace de la Transfiguration d’apres les Peres d’Occident, Bellefontaine 1990.

M. Blondel, Filozoficzne wyzwania chrześcijaństwa, Kraków 1994

R. Javelet, Image et ressemblance au douzième siècle, 1967

E. Gilson, Duch filozofii średniowiecznej, Warszawa 1958

R. Cole-Turner, Transhumanism and Transcendence, Washington 2011

C. Mercer and T. J. Trothen, Religion and Transhumanism, 2015

Knowledge:

– the student knows the main hermeneutic and mystical concepts of Antiquity and Middle Ages

– the student knows the specific Latin and modern languages terminology, used within the thematic scope of the seminar

Skills:

– the student can singlehandedly analyse the texts read in the class

– the student can identify essential problems and research questions concerning the examined issues

– the student can formulate his/her own research propositions

Competence:

– the student is aware of the importance of the Medieval symbol theory and mystical concepts in the European culture

– the student can cooperate in a group, taking on different roles

Conversation checking the student’s knowledge of the issues presented during lectures, activity.

Number of absences: 2 in a semester