Critique of Transhumanism's Concept of Humans from the Perspective of Islamic Thought

Year 2023, , 107 - 131, 31.07.2023

Seyithan Can

https://doi.org/10.12730/is.1274636

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Transhumanism is defined as a human movement that believes in and attempts to implement ideas and practices aimed at developing and empowering the biological, psychological, and cognitive abilities of humans and helping them become superior to their current biological state through modern science and technological tools. Considering its promises and goals for humans and humanity, this science- and technology-based understanding is also recognized as a sociocultural and ideological movement. Given the effectiveness of areas such as virtual reality, genetic intervention, and artificial intelligence, it is clear that the promises of transhumanism are not so utopian. It is essential to subject the ontological approaches of transhumanism, which consider humans and the universe, to a theological interpretation based on current facts and arguments rather than philosophical and theoretical interpretations. Transhumanism clearly emphasizes that humans are incomplete beings and need to be developed. In this context, it emphasizes the understanding that humans can be empowered to their maximum potential through technology and science. It sets the goal of achieving the transhuman stage initially and then the posthuman stage, which represents the empowered state of humans at their maximum cognitive, emotional, and psychological levels. Although this movement, considered a continuation of humanism, develops humans physically, cognitively, and emotionally, it also treats humans as objects in achieving these goals. In our study, we specifically focus on transhumanism’s conception of humans and attempt to criticize this conception within the framework of the Islamic understanding of human beings. We first explain the concepts of transhuman and posthuman to understand transhumanists’ conception of humans. Transhumanists, who consider the transhuman an intermediate form and an incomplete being that needs to be developed in many aspects, claim that humans will reach maximum competence in the process of posthumanization and that this will be achieved through science and technology. This understanding, which sees humans as a product of evolution, contrasts with the Islamic belief that humans are created by God. Although evolution has historically been positioned as an ideology against religion, we attempt to demonstrate that it can be approached in a way that is compatible with God’s creation and that modern scientific data do not consider evolution impossible. When examined from the perspective of human nature, especially in general Islamic thought, the understanding of the human soul and body is incompatible with the transhumanist understanding of humans. This is because transhumanists reject the concept of the soul, which is considered an essence of the human being in Islamic thought. In contrast, transhumanists completely attribute the phenomenon that Islamic theology accepts as the soul to the biological structure of humans. Thus, they propose a different approach by emphasizing body-mind functionalism against soul-body duality. Because their claim is scientific, it has been proposed within the scope of modern science that the concept of the soul in Islamic thought can be understood as the energy that gives life to human beings or as human beings’ state of consciousness. Another topic addressed in this study is the transhumanist approach that views humans as inherently deficient. This perspective contradicts the Islamic conception of a perfect human. This is because in Islam, it is believed that human beings were created as aḥsan taqwīm (the most beautiful form) and can express perfection in every aspect. Regarding this point, we find that the fundamental problem is the expression of perfection in Islamic thought concerning the human body. It is clear that people can be born with disabilities and that they do not have physical perfection due to illness, old age, or other factors. Therefore, we suggest that the perfect aspect of humans should be positioned on the basis of their ability to think, use their mind in every way, and be conscious rather than referring to physical perfection since it is clear that humans can be born with disabilities.

Keywords

Kalām, transhumanism, human, transhuman, posthuman

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