Kirjahaku

In recent years, the word 'virus' has lost its biological perimeter of reference to acquire a much broader – could say 'paradigmatic' – meaning. The term 'virus' can be seen as a key word or an explanatory model also for processes that go beyond the infectious sphere. Every event appears to have a viral character: from the way information is transmitted to the processes of cultural globalization, from the impact of human beings on the planet to the subversion of ecosystems, from pandemic risks to the demographic increase on the planet. This seems to be indeed the Age of the Virus. Its model can be applied to most of the phenomena that characterize the twenty-first. Its profile – its looming and invisible nature, its ability to use other people's resources to spread and to transform into a dangerous doppelganger – is perfect to represent the fears of the contemporary age.

Posthumanist Manifesto: A Pluralistic Approach compares the posthumanist proposal with humanism and transhumanism in ethics, aesthetics, ontology, and epistemology. Roberto Marchesini clarifies the specificity of the posthumanist approach and the novelty of its theoretical and applicative program. Beyond theoretical aspects of poshumanism, this book proposes new approaches to social models, personal rights and citizenship, the relationship between the biosphere and the ecological crisis, and the impact of technology.This book answers questions such as “What is posthumanism and why does it have this definition?”; “How does posthumanism differ from other theoretical approaches?”; and “What are the urgencies to be addressed for posthumanist critique?” The author explores how posthumanism interprets technology in relationship with the body, how to think of a posthumanist anthropology, what ontological transformations posthumanism introduces, and why we can talk about a paradigmatic metamorphosis with respect to humanism, as posthumanism thinks and plans the society of the future.

This book deals with the theme of creativity in the animal world, conceived as a basic function for adapting to specific situations and as a source of innovations and inventions. Creativity is a fundamental resource for the individual who always has a leading role in conduct. To explain creativity, the book focuses on the concept of animal subjectivity, providing a new explanatory model of behavior capable of overcoming the image of the animal moved by automatisms. This model does not use consciousness as a necessary condition, but is based: 1) on affective components, such as behavioral motives, and 2) cognitive, as tools used by the subject to carry out his purposes. Particular attention is paid to the learning processes showing the subjective character of the experience. One topic addressed is the role of creativity in the evolution of living beings: how an invention, by modifying the niche characteristics, is able to change the selective pressures and the trajectory of phylogeny. Roberto Marchesini explains that creativity is a factor that is anything but rare or exceptional in the animal world—it constitutes a fundamental quality for many aspects of animal life.

This book deals with the theme of creativity in the animal world, conceived as a basic function for adapting to specific situations and as a source of innovations and inventions. Creativity is a fundamental resource for the individual who always has a leading role in conduct. To explain creativity, the book focuses on the concept of animal subjectivity, providing a new explanatory model of behavior capable of overcoming the image of the animal moved by automatisms. This model does not use consciousness as a necessary condition, but is based: 1) on affective components, such as behavioral motives, and 2) cognitive, as tools used by the subject to carry out his purposes. Particular attention is paid to the learning processes showing the subjective character of the experience. One topic addressed is the role of creativity in the evolution of living beings: how an invention, by modifying the niche characteristics, is able to change the selective pressures and the trajectory of phylogeny. Roberto Marchesini explains that creativity is a factor that is anything but rare or exceptional in the animal world—it constitutes a fundamental quality for many aspects of animal life.

This book presents a new way to understand human–animal interactions. Offering a profound discussion of topics such as human identity, our relationship with animals and the environment, and our culture, the author channels the vibrant Italian traditions of humanism, materialism, and speculative philosophy.The research presents a dialogue between the humanities and the natural sciences. It challenges the separation and oppression of animals with a post-humanism steeped in the traditions of the Italian Renaissance.Readers discover a vision of the human as a species informed by an intertwining with animals. The human being is not constructed by an onto-poetic process, but rather by close relations with otherness. The human system is increasingly unstable and, therefore, more hybrid.The argument it presents interests scholars, thinkers, and researchers. It also appeals to anyone who wants to delve intothe deep animal–human bond and its philosophical, cultural, political instances.The author is a veterinarian, ethologist, and philosopher. He uses cognitive science, zooanthropology, and philosophy to engage in a series of empirical, theoretical, and practice-based engagements with animal life. In the process, he argues that animals are key to human identity and culture at all levels.

This book presents a new way to understand human–animal interactions. Offering a profound discussion of topics such as human identity, our relationship with animals and the environment, and our culture, the author channels the vibrant Italian traditions of humanism, materialism, and speculative philosophy.The research presents a dialogue between the humanities and the natural sciences. It challenges the separation and oppression of animals with a post-humanism steeped in the traditions of the Italian Renaissance.Readers discover a vision of the human as a species informed by an intertwining with animals. The human being is not constructed by an onto-poetic process, but rather by close relations with otherness. The human system is increasingly unstable and, therefore, more hybrid.The argument it presents interests scholars, thinkers, and researchers. It also appeals to anyone who wants to delve intothe deep animal–human bond and its philosophical, cultural, political instances.The author is a veterinarian, ethologist, and philosopher. He uses cognitive science, zooanthropology, and philosophy to engage in a series of empirical, theoretical, and practice-based engagements with animal life. In the process, he argues that animals are key to human identity and culture at all levels.

Ecology, as a descriptive science, is not only a framework for describing biological relations between living beings, but a way of thinking and cognizing entities in transcendental terms. This way of thinking cannot be limited to the descriptive realm because it implies an ontological and epistemological revolution that can no longer be ignored. In this sense, it is essential to speak of a philosophical ecology, which is not to be confused with a fundamentalist view of ecology or as a way of making the descriptive descend into the prescriptive. Rather, the point is to take the form--eco-logical thinking--to inaugurate a different mindset that can be applied to different contexts. In this book, Roberto Marchesini explores the fundamental principles of ecological thinking and shows how they can yield far-reaching philosophical change. He also explores how our way of thinking about reality has influenced our inability to fully understand the current ecological crisis and to become aware of the urgencies it poses.

Roberto Marchesini presents a timely proposal within post-human philosophy in order to overcome the centuries of separation between human beings, non-human animals and technology. This book highlights the inspiring nature of the relationship with non-human beings – what Marchesini calls “Epiphany” – and how its enhancement can open new existential dimensions. Technology is also reinterpreted, no longer as a performative tool, but as a virus that infiltrates the human dimension and changes its predicates. Technopoietic events are not just the product of human intelligence, but they arise from an epiphany (a becoming alterity), thus positioning technology well within the ontological and somatic dimension of human beings. This book lays the foundations for a new and non-anthropocentric Humanism, which is able to recognize the essential role that non-human alterities have had throughout our history.

The primary purpose of this book is to contribute to an overcoming of the traditional separation between humanties and life sciences which, according to the authors, is required today both by the developments of these disciplines and by the social problems they have to face. The volume discusses the theoretical, epistemological and ethical repercussions of the main acquisitions obtained in the last decades from the behavioral sciences. Both the authors are inspired by the concept of a “critical ethology”, oriented to archive the nature/culture and human/animal dichotomies. The book proposes a theoretical and methodological restructuring of the comparative study of the animal behavior, learning, and cultures, focused on the fact that thought, culture and language are not exclusively human prerogatives. The proposed analysis includes a critique of speciesism and determinism in the ethical field, and converge with the Numanities, to which the series is dedicated, on a key point: it isnecessary to arrive at an education system able to offer scientific, social and ethical skills that are trasversal and transcendent to the traditional humanities/life sciences bipartition. Skills that are indispensable for facing the complex challenges of the contemporary society and promoting a critical reflection of humanity on itself.

The primary purpose of this book is to contribute to an overcoming of the traditional separation between humanties and life sciences which, according to the authors, is required today both by the developments of these disciplines and by the social problems they have to face. The volume discusses the theoretical, epistemological and ethical repercussions of the main acquisitions obtained in the last decades from the behavioral sciences. Both the authors are inspired by the concept of a “critical ethology”, oriented to archive the nature/culture and human/animal dichotomies. The book proposes a theoretical and methodological restructuring of the comparative study of the animal behavior, learning, and cultures, focused on the fact that thought, culture and language are not exclusively human prerogatives. The proposed analysis includes a critique of speciesism and determinism in the ethical field, and converge with the Numanities, to which the series is dedicated, on a key point: it isnecessary to arrive at an education system able to offer scientific, social and ethical skills that are trasversal and transcendent to the traditional humanities/life sciences bipartition. Skills that are indispensable for facing the complex challenges of the contemporary society and promoting a critical reflection of humanity on itself.

Un libro que le mostrar el significado y la importancia que los animales han tenido y tienen en relaci n con la cultura humana. La relaci n entre el ser humano y los animales: la imagen animal; el miedo a los animales; las supersticiones; la zooantropolog a; el animal y el conocimiento; los animales guardianes. El animal en el mito, en la f bula, en las leyendas, y en las tradiciones populares: ni os y animales; el animal-gu a; los monstruos; los p jaros; los insectos; el perro; el gato; el zorro; el lobo. Los animales y el futuro: la adivinaci n; la zoomancia; la oniromancia. Los animales y la espiritualidad: el chamanismo; el totemismo; el animal tutelar.