Connecting with the divine and the sacred, and becoming cosmically conscious

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Star Ark

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Abstract

In the most general terms, “transhumanism” says that the indefinite projection of those qualities that most clearly distinguish humans from other natural beings is worth pursuing as a value in its own right—even if that means radically altering our material nature (More and Vita-More 2013). This rather open definition of transhumanism makes it clear who might oppose such a movement, not least those—often of a “green” persuasion—who believe that humanity’s current global crises stem from our attempts to minimize, if not deny, our commonality with the rest of Nature. In this respect, transhumanism needs to be distinguished from posthumanism, which aims to de-center the human as the locus of value altogether, thereby rendering it friendlier to green concerns (Fuller 2012). Whereas posthumanism may be seen in the broad sweep of Western intellectual history as counter-enlightenment, transhumanism is better seen as ultra-enlightenment: The former sees the enlightenment as having gone too far, the latter not far enough.

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Correspondence to Steve Fuller , Roberto Chiotti or Krists Ernstsons .

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Fuller, S., Chiotti, R., Ernstsons, K. (2017). Connecting with the divine and the sacred, and becoming cosmically conscious. In: Armstrong, R. (eds) Star Ark. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31042-8_14

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