Can Education Answer the Transhumanist Challenge?

Author: Vladimir Lukić
e-mail: vl.lukic.96@gmail.com
Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value, University of Pardubice

Can Education Answer the Transhumanist Challenge?
Contemporary Debates and Perspectives

Abstract: I would like to propose an interesting question – if we consider transhumanism, do we really need education? The answer to that question depends on our view of education itself. This paper proposes an answer to the critique of transhumanism which comes from a traditionalist standpoint. It argues that education is something that has a much deeper value and, therefore, transhumanism is not compatible with it. The argument in this paper tends to show that their conception of education has little to do with the contemporary conception of education and that, if we do take an alternative approach, the question changes altogether. If we were to pose a question on the relation of education and transhumanism, we need a correlate to connect them. I believe that the correlate is found in the concept of just distribution. This assumes that the contemporary education is seen from the realm of the political. By doing so, I intend to open a way from which we can talk about the correspondence of transhumanism and education. Therefore, the method that this paper takes is the following – elaborating what it is meant by transhumanism and education, open a discussion with the authors that criticize transhumanism from the basis of traditional education and provide an alternative view which is based on the political notion of distributive justice.

Keywords: “Education”; “Transhumanism”; “Metaphysical Realism”; “Distributive Justice”; “Technological Upgrade”