When Social Theory is Devoid of Social History. Reply to “Transhumanism. Human Nature and Culture: A Preliminary Sociological Contextualization” by Markus Lipowicz

• Authors: Marcin Zaród

Abstracts

EN

This polemic discusses two problematic aspects to the claim of a paradigmatic shift to the new technology-centered symbolic universe, as understood by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The first problematic aspect is connected to the status quo ante transhumanism (before the postulated paradigmatic shift). By discussing cases from pre-modernity and peak modernity, I point out that the discussed claim does not provide satisfactory understanding of the role of technology in society. My counter-argument is built on cases of technoreligious institutions such as abbeys and rocketry research theoretical circles, using works by David Noble as the starting point. The second problematic aspect goes back to the fundamentals of Berger and Luckmann’s concept and its relation to ontology. The discussed proposal mixed this framework with the concept of culture from the Margaret Archer system, which led to a shift in ontological positioning. In effect, some preliminaries about the materiality and dynamics of Berger-Luckmann dialectics are harder to trace in the proposal. This results in problems of operationalization and loss of useful theoretical dialogue with post-constructivist tradition. In the last part of the paper, I sketch other possibilities and challenges for post Berger-Luckman applications in the case of transhumanism and late modernity.

Keywords

PL

transhumanism; technology; modernity; social theory; science and technology studies

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Studia Socjologiczne
• Year: 2022
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 173-183

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Marcin Zaród

• Uniwersytet Warszawski

• https://orcid.org/000000023005286X

Identifiers

DOI

10.24425/sts.2022.143587

Biblioteka Nauki

56244749