The Ship of Theseus Paradox: Possibilities and Limits of a Trans-/Posthumanist Interpretation

The Ship of Theseus Paradox: Possibilities and Limits of a Trans-/Posthumanist Interpretation

Abstract This chapter begins with a series of definitions of the nature of the human being taken from the entire history of philosophy, with the implicit invitation to relate them with the more or less explicit definitions of human beings typical of transhumanism and posthumanism. I highlight how in trans-/posthumanist conceptions of what is human the substantiality of the subject is reduced to a role of secondary importance. I also draw attention to how some mythological and angelological doctrines of the past anticipate problems that arise today when we consider the different possible cases of those particular subjects called cyborgs.

The famous question of the paradox of the ship of Theseus will then allow us to test its limits when applied to the unity of the human being. The discriminating aspect of this applicability revolves around the acceptance of the human being understood as a simple aggregatum or compost. A hypothetical mereology of the human will in fact have a totally different structure depending on whether it is understood as a unitary reality or pure multiplicity. The awareness of this fundamental dichotomy has been present since the ancient Roman jurists, where they spoke of unity as henomenon or of a composite being understood as synemmenon.

DEFINITIONS OF THE HUMAN BEING VERSUS HUMAN

One FRAGMENTATION (IN THE HISTORY OF WESTERN THOUGHT)

In the history of Western thought, whenever we have had to deal with a definition of what it means to be a human being, it is as if, at the same time, we have to deal with a crucial moment or a form of summary of this history. What can be considered definitions for various reasons (here abbreviated to Def. followed by a number)-but which I prefer to call "definitional discourses"-are never neutral positions. Indeed, they are the equivalent of a special "measuring tool", with which to establish other criteria in the most diverse fields of human action. Scrutinizing the history of thought, aiming to identify various "definitional discourses" on the human being, is not a simple task that can be completed in a few pages and is not, above all, the main aim of this work. However, it is from here that it seems necessary and even simpler to start in order to then broaden the discussion to include current conceptions of the human being, the monstrous, and the mystical. My analysis will highlight some fundamental stages in the history of Western thought, chosen specifically so that each one provides an element of a picture that will gradually become clearer along the way.