PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION IN THE LIGHT OF THE CHALLENGES OF TRANSHUMANISM

Abstract

Objective. The article examines the transhumanistic project of human improvement and the posthumanistic variant of belittling a person’s value in relation to the classical concept of education and reveals the ill-conceitedness of the initial foundations of these two constructions. Methodology. Through the critical-analytical explication of the intellectual means of these projects and their comparative analysis in the light of the traditional philosophy problems of understanding the nature and freedom of man, naturalistic reductionism is revealed and the significance of human activity is substantiated. The focus is on the problem of the way of thinking, taken not in the instrumental-technological dimension, but in the anthropological key. Scientific novelty. The conceptual ill-conceitedness of the phenomenon of human life is revealed, which is considered purely scientistically as a state of a single entity (organism) that realizes and preserves itself by exchanging its constituents and substances of the surrounding world (metabolism), while the temporary eventfulness of human life is not taken into account – the focus is on the organism, imperfections which are overcome. Because of this, the motivational and target components of human life are left without attention. When considering the worldview issues of re-evaluating the role and significance of a person, it was recorded that the action of the supposed principles of out-of-species ethics comes from a person and is directed towards a person and, therefore, he remains the original agent and subject. It is argued that any improvement of human’s “design” will encounter the problem of mastering his own nature, i.e. the ability not to be tied to one function, but to have the ability to change in accordance with some logic, also changeable. Conclusion. The classical problem of thinking already contains «out-of-species ethics», which presupposes a shift in measure from a person to another, which becomes a way to expand the capabilities and abilities of a person. The radical novelty of technical projects for human reorganization lies in the fact that the free volitional assimilation of one’s nature, assumed by education as the formation of a person, is eliminated.