The
central theme of the book is a critical diagnosis of the present human
condition and the contemporary questioning of human identity. The question is about
what amounts to human identity in the era of so called post-human condition. Ever
since 80s and 90s, after substantial advancements in AI, bioethics, mutation,
cloning and gene modification and other such developments, it has been argued
by some philosophers that man has overstepped the limits of moral and human
condition; man has overcome humanity itself. In the new age of globalization,
our new found rationality based on technologized science, is supposed to be
moving towards a kind of mastery of nature. It is said to be no more restrained
by the limits of ‘being human’. All this incidentally entails the elimination
of need of philosophy and human sciences. This slim and concise book is Janicaud’s
enquiry into the question, whether after all the scientific development in
specific, and enormous progress of humanity in general, humans are still human
or they have overcome their own humanity. He critically reviews and renounces
the idea of overcoming of metaphysics, rationality and humanity.       

His
argument is a sort of reiteration of Heidegger’s idea that we should cease all overcoming,
specifically the overcoming of metaphysics. In the process of arguing against the
overcoming of metaphysics, he questions Heidegger’s dichotomy between
metaphysical rationality and reason based meditative thinking, opening a new
possibility for thinking about reason and rationality that refuses the
opposition between the two. Against Heidegger, Janicaud argues that rationality
is not entirely containable within a reductive metaphysics, but it holds open a
whole domain of possibility and potential, giving wide scope to
philosophical discourse and analysis. Janicaud holds that the rationality of
techno-science has actually become hyper-rationality. He sees the entire
scientific development as, "the intensification of the process of rational
power whose goal is the total actualization or effectuation (Wirklichkeit) of
the powers of the possible". In other words, in Janicaud’s view, "contemporary
techno-science is characterized by a sheer willfulness, a desire for total
actualization". In this process it has rather become irrational.

Janicaud
comes up with an innovative approach towards rationality and a new
interpretation of the meaning of humanity. His rationality is the one which is
shared by the mortals in their everyday being-with-one-another. He holds that passive
acceptance of rationality will only bring subjection and tyranny. On the other
hand, if we understand rationality as a call or appeal, as a new source of
creativity, in which we can participate, the scene will be more positive and
full of hope. This will in turn help us to attend the enigmatic character of
human condition. It suggests that "the human being is not something to be
overcome, but undergone". (p. xvii). Finding out the way and struggling
for it will define human condition in a true sense. His counsel is that human
beings cannot escape from their condition. Thus, according to Janicaud, the
claim for an overcoming of the human is a myth. Man thinks he can leave his
condition behind, but all these departures take him back to his fundamental
truth.

In
"The Danger of Monsters" and the other two chapters, Janicaud
highlights how the technology has the ability to manipulate life and lead
humanity towards being inhuman. He holds that the monsters of science must
render us more cautious of humanity and the humanity should not approve of the
inhuman. Man cannot leave his condition behind; he rather has to go back to his
fundamental truth because "humanity is the unfathomable overcoming of its
limits". (p.30). Janicaud also argues that we should not conceive
humanism in opposition to the base animality of the inhuman — the sub-human —
nor in opposition to the technological transformations and promises of the
superhuman. They both comprise humanity.

The
author is well versed in history and philosophy of science. He quotes across
the philosophical literature. In four concise chapters he discusses the enigma
about humanism, analyses the danger of monsters, assesses risks, and traces
links between the superhuman and the inhuman, covering such topics as genetic
engineering, the thought of Primo Levi, the Frankenstein myth, and the need for
eternal vigilance against the inhuman. He is right in emphasizing that humanism
endures, even in those discourses that seem to abandon it. His effort helps us
appreciate why the question of the human condition is so difficult to pose
and why the enigma of identity formation cannot be circumscribed.

© 2006 Richa Yadav

Richa Yadav, IIT, Kanpur, India

Categories: Philosophical