Le sens de l'humain à l'ère des technologies

Abstract

From the twentieth century onwards, science began to assert itself more and more thanks to the operationality it acquired from its union with technology, thus becoming whatvi is known today as "technoscience". Technoscientific knowledge will allow nature to be profoundly invested. The processes or principles that underlie it will be highlighted and structured in the form of knowledge, which, because it is operational, will enable us to have a real hold on natural phenomena. From then on, traditional metaphysics and ontology, which had hitherto proved ineffective, would be discarded. Things would no longer be characterised by their essence, but by their functional properties. The technoscientific revolution will restore the lustre of materialist monism, while sounding the death knell of dualism. Man will be seen as a being fundamentally rooted in biology, and therefore amenable to biotechnical manipulation. He can therefore be modified, contrary to the view of bioconservatives who believe that he is endowed with an intangible and sacred nature, underpinned by an intrinsic normativism. As a result, the meaning of the human takes on a new connotation. Moreover, although human beings are marked by certain natural dispositions that seem to condition them inescapably, it has to be said that they have the power to transcend them and define themselves differently. The prodigious innovations in the life sciences clearly show that it is possible to change the physical and cognitive traits of human beings, and thus to free living beings from natural determination. This is why they are the lever of the trans/posthumanist movement, since the aim is to improve or augment man, or rather, to reinvent him. This is the flagship perspective opened up by the technosciences, and it has given rise to heated controversy, since the meaning of life and the value of the human being are taking a hit as a result, in addition to the fact that the very survival of humanity is threatened. This is why it seems necessary to provide a framework for the technosciences, without however curbing them or preventing their ongoing evolution. The aim of this thesis is therefore to assess the relevance of the biotechnical revival in relation to the anthropological semantics that derive from it. Overall, it is a philosophical reading of the technoscientific dynamic.