Just Finished Reading: Lyotard and the Inhuman by Stuart Sim.

At 66 pages this was less of a book and more of a booklet outlining Jean-Francois Lyotards’s idea that we in the West are moving away from Humanism – of which he was a staunch critic – towards Inhumanism which he greatly feared. Lyotard proposed that the mixture of Capitalism, the bureaucratic passion for efficiency in all things, and our ever advancing technology will inevitably remove those aspects from us that make us Human and replace them with the Machine. He argued that it was the responsibility of philosophy to resist this move with every argument at its command. He particularly argued against developments in Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life and the growing interest in Cyborg technology (the melding of man and machine).

Contrasted with this view Sim presented opposing ideas by feminists Donna Haraway and Sadie Plant who more favourably viewed Inhumanism as a liberating force that could overturn the old questions surrounding Gender and Gender relations. Cyborgs, they seemed to say, move beyond Gender making all previous thought on the subject obsolete.

I seem to be developing a ‘thing’ for 20th Century French philosophers at the moment. Maybe because they are so ‘out there’ compared to their Anglo-American counterparts. Though they are fairly difficult to read – hence why I’m attempting them so far in small chunks – they do represent a radical breath of fresh air in what can be a fairly stuffy discipline. This was a quick foray into some of Lyotard’s ideas which I suspect I will be following up by reading some of his original work. Recommended to all those who feel like expanding their minds without too much pain and effort. Part of the Postmodern Encounters series.