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Computer technology, pharmacology, genetics, and neurosciences promise people the possibility of making fundamental technical changes to themselves. According to post-humanist theory, from the modifications humans perform on the human organism a post-human being will result which is supposed to have a massively broader spectrum of bodily and cognitive capabilities compared to humans. On the other hand, some essentially human characteristics will be dispensable for the post-human. For example, it has been assumed that such beings would not even require consciousness, since conscious experience might be more of a hindrance to the smooth functionality of action that will be needed in the future. This would mean that an almost unimaginable transformation would occur, and the oft-anticipated 'end of man' could become a reality in an unforeseen way. This book considers the post-humanist scenario from the perspectives of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and cognitive science.

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9783211793442

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"Martin Kurthen studied medicine in Bochum and Bonn (Germany). He received his medical doctorate in 1985 for his dissertation on the concept of pain in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. He has worked at the Departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Epileptology of the University of Bonn since 1986. His work has concentrated on the fields of epileptology, cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy. He received his postdoctoral qualification for clinical neuropsychology in 1992 for his habilitation treatise on ""Neurosemantics"". He has been an Associate Professor for neurology and clinical neuropsychology at the University of Bonn since 1997, and Senior Neurologist at the Swiss Epilepsy Center in Zurich since 2005. He is the author of numerous journal articles and other publications on the analytic philosophy of mind, depth psychology, epileptology, neuropsychology, and neurophysiology."

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