FIRST PART: In general, from 1930 von Weizsäcker introduced the term pathisch to describe the antilogical (antilogik) character of life tout court, and of the human being in particular, with the object of addressing the “bottomless bottom” of life in its general relationship with emotional life, described as the “basic relationship” (Grund-Verhältnis) which is obscure and unobjectifiable. Seen from this point of view, action and knowledge, animal and human, are primarily dependent on the affections. Starting from this assumption, the cited work by von Weizsäcker develops a “theory of the affections” in an attempt to understand human nature and behavior, based on our mutual natural identity with the animal and the specific degree of our condition as a living patiens being. SECOND PART Until a few decades ago all that biomedicine could aspire to was to arrest ‘abnormality’, re- establish the vital ‘norm’ of the natural. Thanks to biotechnology, the ‘normativity’ and ‘normativities’ of the body have become open to the mutation and experiential multiplication of themselves and are in need of new biotechno- political thinking. The old boundaries between prevention, cure, correction and ‘opti- mization’ (Balistreri 2011, Adele 2012, Tolleneer/Sterckx/Bonte 2013; Savulescu/Meulen/Kahane 2011, Buchanan 2011) need to be redrawn: think, for example, of the effects of psychiatric drugs in re-establishing “thresholds”, the norms and volatility of the emotions, cognition and will (Metzinger 2009, Maturo/Barker 2012).

The Pathosophie of the Posthuman / Masullo, Paolo Augusto. - (2017), pp. 113-133.

The Pathosophie of the Posthuman

MASULLO, Paolo Augusto
2017

Abstract

FIRST PART: In general, from 1930 von Weizsäcker introduced the term pathisch to describe the antilogical (antilogik) character of life tout court, and of the human being in particular, with the object of addressing the “bottomless bottom” of life in its general relationship with emotional life, described as the “basic relationship” (Grund-Verhältnis) which is obscure and unobjectifiable. Seen from this point of view, action and knowledge, animal and human, are primarily dependent on the affections. Starting from this assumption, the cited work by von Weizsäcker develops a “theory of the affections” in an attempt to understand human nature and behavior, based on our mutual natural identity with the animal and the specific degree of our condition as a living patiens being. SECOND PART Until a few decades ago all that biomedicine could aspire to was to arrest ‘abnormality’, re- establish the vital ‘norm’ of the natural. Thanks to biotechnology, the ‘normativity’ and ‘normativities’ of the body have become open to the mutation and experiential multiplication of themselves and are in need of new biotechno- political thinking. The old boundaries between prevention, cure, correction and ‘opti- mization’ (Balistreri 2011, Adele 2012, Tolleneer/Sterckx/Bonte 2013; Savulescu/Meulen/Kahane 2011, Buchanan 2011) need to be redrawn: think, for example, of the effects of psychiatric drugs in re-establishing “thresholds”, the norms and volatility of the emotions, cognition and will (Metzinger 2009, Maturo/Barker 2012).
2017
978-184519-713-1
The Pathosophie of the Posthuman / Masullo, Paolo Augusto. - (2017), pp. 113-133.
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/747833
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact