Hacía una teoría social post-humanista: el caso del síndrome de cautiverio

Abstract

This article argues that post-humanist theory should not be understood as signaling the “end of the human” and the advent of new post-human world, but as a new form of posing the question, and the study, of the human. Hence, it will argue that, instead of establishing a duality between humanism and post-humanism, it is advisable to talk about two kinds of humanism: an abstract humanism that postulates the human as an atemporal and transcendental essence, on the one hand, and, on the other, an immanent humanism that understands the human as emerging from, and remaining within, an endless play of relations with the nonhuman. This argument will be defended empirically through a specific case-study: locked-in syndrome patients. This case will reveal in a practical way the specific play of relations between humans and nonhumans that draws the boundaries of our condition as moral and autonomous subjects.