Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism: Mind, Matter, and the Life Sciences After Kant (New Directions in German Studies, 23)

The literary and scientific renaissance that struck Germany around 1800 is usually taken to be the cradle of contemporary humanism.__Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism__shows how figures like Immanuel Kant and Johann Wolfgang Goethe as well as scientists specializing in the emerging modern life and cognitive sciences not only established but also transgressed the boundaries of the “human.”This period so broadly painted as humanist by proponents and detractors alike also grappled with ways of challenging some of humanism's most cherished assumptions: the dualisms, for example, between freedom and nature, science and art, matter and spirit, mind and body, and thereby also between the human and the nonhuman. Posthumanism is older than we think, and the so-called “humanists” of the late Enlightenment have much to offer our contemporary re-thinking of the human. Introduction : Posthumanism After Kant / Edgar Landgraf, Gabriel Trop, Leif Weatherby -- Vertiginous Systems Of The Soul / Jeffrey West Kirkwood -- Brain Matters In The German Enlightenment : An Imal Cognition And Species Difference In Herder, Soemmerring, And Gall / Patrick Fortmann -- Agency Without Humans : Normativity And Path Dependence In The Nineteenth-century Life Sciences / Christian J. Emden -- Embodied Phantasy : Johannes Millier And The Nineteenth-century Neurophysiological Foundations Of Critical Posthumanism / Edgar Landgraf -- Kant And Posthumanism / Carsten Strathausen -- Intimations Of The Posthuman : Kant's Natural Beauty / Peter Gilgen -- Farewell To Ontology : Hegel After Humanism / Leif Weatherby -- Steps To An Ecology Of Geist : Hegel, Bateson, And The Spirit Of Posthumanism / John H. Smith -- Protecting Natural Beauty From Humanism's Violence : The Healing Effects Of Alexander Von Humboldt's Naturgemiilde / Elizabeth Millan -- Posthumanist Thinking In The Work Of Heinrich Von Kleist / Tim Mehigan -- Positing The Robotic Self : From Fichte To Ex Machina / Alex Hogue -- In Defense Of Humanism : Envisioning A Posthuman Future And Its Critique In Goethe's Faust / Christian P. Weber -- Beyond Death : Posthuman Perspectives In Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland' S Macrobiotics / Jocelyn Holland -- The Indifference Of The Inorganic / Gabriel Trop. Edited By Edgar Landgraf, Gabriel Trop, And Leif Weatherby. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "The literary and scientific renaissance that struck Germany around 1800 is usually taken to be the cradle of contemporary humanism. Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism shows how figures like Immanuel Kant and Johann Wolfgang Goethe as well as scientists specializing in the emerging modern life and cognitive sciences not only established but also transgressed the boundaries of the "human." This period so broadly painted as humanist by proponents and detractors alike also grappled with ways of challenging some of humanism's most cherished assumptions: the dualisms, for example, between freedom and nature, science and art, matter and spirit, mind and body, and thereby also between the human and the nonhuman. Posthumanism is older than we think, and the so-called "humanists" of the late Enlightenment have much to offer our contemporary re-thinking of the human."--Bloomsbury Publishing. The literary and scientific renaissance that struck Germany around 1800 is usually taken to be the cradle of contemporary humanism. Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism shows how figures like Immanuel Kant and Johann Wolfgang Goethe as well as scientists specializing in the emerging modern life and cognitive sciences not only established but also transgressed the boundaries of the “human.” This period so broadly painted as humanist by proponents and detractors alike also grappled with ways of challenging some of humanism's most cherished assumptions: the dualisms, for example, between freedom and nature, science and art, matter and spirit, mind and body, and thereby also between the human and the nonhuman. Posthumanism is older than we think, and the so-called “humanists” of the late Enlightenment have much to offer our contemporary re-thinking of the human. (from publisher)