“DEATH OF MAN”: THEORETICAL ANTIHUMANISM OR DEHUMANIZATION?

Abstract

The purpose of the work. The article analyzes the philosophy of “human death”, the theoretical and cultural meaning of which is often revealed as theoretical antihumanism, but it is shown that the interpretation of this phenomenon reveals different meanings. Methodological. The main way of thinking is conceptual work, revealing anthropological dimensions of epistemological principles on the example of culturological analysis of the philosophy of “human death”. Scientific novelty. It is shown that in addition to the development of the concept of “theoretical antihumanism” with the emphatic neutralization of its possible ethical connotations, for the beginning of the XXI century characteristic sharpening of attention to the ethical consequences of the use of the term “dehumanization”, which is correlated with the concept of iconoclasm, taken not in the context of the history of heresies, but with explications of the anthropological aspect where man is not simply removed from the center of the universe. this aspect is justified, but it loses its human features and is equated to mechanical and geometric shapes, decomposes into triangles, spots, lines, merges with flora and fauna. Thus, the second meaning of the prefix “de” is a downward movement, reduction: that is, new art makes visible hidden from the “physical” eye of human rebirth in the direction of its movement from the image and likeness of God (higher reality) to equate it with other lower forms until the atomic decay in abstractionism. Efforts to transform human nature are translated into technology as a means of guaranteed and effective results, the dominant goals are consumption, the creative nature of human constitution in man is understood as an ephemeral religious “fiction” and a sober eye, armed with scientific tools, in the image of man. Man eliminates his presence in the world, transferring heavy functions to the machine and destroying what causes pain. The world without the acutely painful self is most evident in contemporary art, and the adjective “modern” refers to certain qualitative rather than temporal features, because in modern times as time is represented by a wide variety of artistic practices. Conclusions. The concept of “theoretical antihumanism” unfolds its meaning in the space of epistemologically-oriented thought, which masks the ethical meaning clearly present in the thesis of “human death”, but this meaning is manifested in the concept of “dehumanization”, which is not often associated with epistemological attitudes, while its ethical and anthropological dimensions are evidenced in modern artistic practices.