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7:32in productionCh. 1 · Not the future. A response./ 7:32 · ceiling 15 min
Ideas · Society

Posthumanism

Posthumanism names the crisis of human exceptionalism—but refuses to say what comes after the human.

Posthumanism is a continental philosophy and critical theory idea emerging since the late 1970s. It responds to anthropocentrism in 21st-century thought. It relegates humanity to one of many natural species. It posits human ties to the nonhuman. It directly questions anthropocentrism, speciesism, and biopolitics. One philosophical variety, objectivism, emphasises nonhuman agents.

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Chapters & takeaways4
  1. 1:02
    Not the future. A response.

    Posthumanism is not sci-fi speculation—it’s a scholarly framework that began in the late 1970s.

  2. 2:02
    One species among many

    It dethrones the human—not to erase us, but to situate us alongside plants, animals, ecosystems, and technology.

  3. 3:24
    Three targets, not one

    It targets three linked structures: anthropocentrism, speciesism, and biopolitics.

  4. 4:23
    When the nonhuman acts

    Objectivism shifts focus from human intention to nonhuman agency—machines, ecosystems, materials acting back.

Worth your time?

Yes. Study the whole thing.

3.5/ 5
What works
  • exposes the limits of human-centred thinking
  • names real tensions in contemporary governance and ecology
  • forces confrontation with nonhuman agency
What does not
  • offer policy tools
  • define actionable alternatives to humanist institutions
  • engage empirical science beyond metaphor
Study it if
  • critical theorists
  • AI ethicists
  • environmental humanities scholars
Skip it if
  • practitioners seeking frameworks for reform
  • policy designers
  • scientists requiring testable models
The written brief1 min read

What the thing is

Posthumanism is a continental philosophy and critical theory idea. It relegates humanity to one of many natural species. It posits human ties to the nonhuman. It directly questions anthropocentrism, speciesism, and biopolitics.

Where it came from

It emerged since the late 1970s. It arose because traditional views separating human from nonhuman are breaking down. It responds to anthropocentrism in 21st-century thought.

What it gets right

It correctly identifies anthropocentrism as a structural problem in 21st-century thought. It names real fractures: between human and nonhuman, subject and agent, life and control.

What it gets wrong

It offers no mechanism for collective action. It displaces political agency without proposing alternatives to biopolitical governance.

Why it matters now

Because AI, climate collapse, and pandemic biopolitics make the human–nonhuman boundary impossible to sustain—and posthumanism names that pressure without resolving it.

Is it worth your time

Yes—if you work with AI, ecology, ethics, or critical theory. No—if you expect clear prescriptions or empirical solutions.

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Pragmatism

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Pragmatism does not ask 'Is it true?'—it asks 'What happens if you act on it?'

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