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Limits of the Human Being: the Transhumanism in the Modern American Movies

https://doi.org/10.25281/2072-3156-2016-13-6-680-688

Abstract

The article is intended to identify the limits of human being, which are implicitly included in such works of the modern cinematography as “Transcendence” (2014) and “Chappie” (2015). These movies pay much attention to the problems of transhumanism. Referring to the philosoph ical ideas of the Modern Age, in the first place through those formulated by René Descartes, the article defines the phi losophical basis that leads in these movies to creation of the projects of human and technical synthesis. The author pays special attention to analysis of the relations of the “posthu man”, the synthesized creature, to the time and space, which plays an essential role in the modern movies referring to the themes of transhumanism. It is concluded, that the projects of human and technical synthesis, presented in the modern movies, originate from the Philosophy of Modern, particu larly from Cartesianism, where the mind is opposed to the body machine. According to the mass cinematography, a dis tinctive feature of the human mind synthesized with tech nics is to acquire some attributes of the European philoso phers’ idea of the Universal Mind overcoming the condition of space-time and having the ability of absolute knowledge, which finally leads to the depersonalization of human beings.

About the Author

Aleksander S. Tsygankov
Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation


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Review

For citations:


Tsygankov A.S. Limits of the Human Being: the Transhumanism in the Modern American Movies. Observatory of Culture. 2016;13(6):680-688. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.25281/2072-3156-2016-13-6-680-688

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ISSN 2072-3156 (Print)
ISSN 2588-0047 (Online)