Seventh Ex.phil. lecture

Today I have given the seventh lecture in Ex.Phil. this Autumn, as part of the University of Stavanger´s bachelor degree in psychology. The topics were views on humans from biology and social sciences. We also had an "early dialogue" (tidligdialog) concerning evaluation of the course.

6 hours of teaching

Today I gave a 2-hour lecture and two 2-hour seminars in Examen Philosophicum at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. Topic of the lecture was: What is a human?

Article to be written to special issue of Agora: How unique/distinctive is the human kind?

In February I was contacted by Roar Høstaker, guest editor of a forthcoming Special Issue of the Norwegian academic journal Agora (Ragnar Myklebust, the guest editor of another forthcoming Special Issue of the same journal, had contacted me a couple of weeks earlier, and communicated my name to Høstaker). The theme of the Special Issue is "livspolitikk" (politics of life - something akin to yet narrower than Foucalt's 'biopolitics').

The theme of my contribution, which is due February 1st 2014, will be the question of how unique/distinctive the human kind is in comparison with other animals/creatures, based on Umwelt theory (and secondarily - or in parallel - Jakob von Uexküll's own view in this context). It is further likely that I willl touch upon David Abram's book Becoming Animal and Dominique Lestel's claim that the animal is the future of Man. The Special Issue will appear as Agora no. 3/2014.

Posthumanism vs. prehumanism

Posthumanism?

I rather believe we are NOT YET fully human.

I therefore adhere to prehumanism.