MANIFESTO FOR A NEW HUMANISM
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摘要 Abstract
For the past three centuries, the western world has been driven by a doctrine of progress, first articulated by philosophers of the European Enlightenment, according to which the destiny of humanity is to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. This doctrine has underwritten developments in science and technology which have improved the lives of millions. They have nevertheless come at the cost of mounting social injustice and environmental degradation. Today, these costs are no longer sustainable. Contemporary critics call for an alternative, post-humanist settlement that would topple humanity from its pedestal at the peak of creation and re-embed human being in a world of more than humans, thus collapsing the distinctions between human and nonhuman, and between society and nature. However, this move, in absolving humans of responsibility for the life around them, would leave coming generations with no role to play in future planetary flourishing. I argue instead that humans are indeed exceptional among living beings, thanks to a narrative capacity to weave their own life histories with the stories of other beings into an ongoing story for the world. This capacity confers on humans a responsibility towards others that is truly exceptional. But it is a responsibility they can only exercise from a position at the heart of the lifeworld itself. This is anthropocentrism in the strict sense. Acknowledging the centrality of humans within a world of living beings, rather than their separation from it, is fundamental to what I propose as a new humanism, committed to coexistence rather than domination, and sustainability rather than progress. For the new humanist, humans are not beings but becomings, continually giving birth to themselves and one another within the crucible of a world that, as the word ‘nature’ suggests, is the mother of all things.
備註： 全程以英文進行
報名網址：https://www.ioe.sinica.edu.tw/
報名期間：8月19日（星期一）至9月20日（星期五）23:00截止
For the past three centuries, the western world has been driven by a doctrine of progress, first articulated by philosophers of the European Enlightenment, according to which the destiny of humanity is to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. This doctrine has underwritten developments in science and technology which have improved the lives of millions. They have nevertheless come at the cost of mounting social injustice and environmental degradation. Today, these costs are no longer sustainable. Contemporary critics call for an alternative, post-humanist settlement that would topple humanity from its pedestal at the peak of creation and re-embed human being in a world of more than humans, thus collapsing the distinctions between human and nonhuman, and between society and nature. However, this move, in absolving humans of responsibility for the life around them, would leave coming generations with no role to play in future planetary flourishing. I argue instead that humans are indeed exceptional among living beings, thanks to a narrative capacity to weave their own life histories with the stories of other beings into an ongoing story for the world. This capacity confers on humans a responsibility towards others that is truly exceptional. But it is a responsibility they can only exercise from a position at the heart of the lifeworld itself. This is anthropocentrism in the strict sense. Acknowledging the centrality of humans within a world of living beings, rather than their separation from it, is fundamental to what I propose as a new humanism, committed to coexistence rather than domination, and sustainability rather than progress. For the new humanist, humans are not beings but becomings, continually giving birth to themselves and one another within the crucible of a world that, as the word ‘nature’ suggests, is the mother of all things.
備註： 全程以英文進行
報名網址：https://www.ioe.sinica.edu.tw/
報名期間：8月19日（星期一）至9月20日（星期五）23:00截止
