Philosophical Posthumanism by Ferrando Francesca;

Author:Ferrando, Francesca;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

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Posthumanist Perspectivism

What is the difference between relativism and perspectivism? The Oxford Dictionary defines “relative” as “considered in relation or in proportion to something else”; the second definition is: “existing or possessing a specified characteristic only in comparison to something else; not absolute.”1 But what is that “something else” which is presupposed by the notion of “relative”? Semantically, “relative” requires another term of comparison; its counterpart is the notion of “absolute.”2 “Relative,” in other words, is part of a dualism, so that a paradigmatic shift toward relativism, structurally, can be seen as the reverse side of the coin of what is trying to relativize. For instance, the relativist turn which characterized some of the most radical Western philosophies of the twentieth century can be seen, from a historical and meta-historical perspective, as a direct response to the absolutist and universalist approaches of the previous eras. The dichotomy absolute/relative can be successfully approached as oppositional poles, but one pole cannot be accounted without the other: they sustain one another in a necessary relation. The classic criticism: “The statement that there is no absolute truth is an absolute truth per se” emphasizes the co-constitutive inextricability of the dichotomy absolute/relative. Instead of partaking for one side or the other, we shall rather dismiss such a dualism itself, and consider perspectivism as a more suited notion to depict what is at stake in Maturana and Varela’s work, not to mention Posthumanism itself.

Where does perspectivism come from? Perspectivism can be found in many different worldviews and continents, from the Amerindian perspectivism of Amazonian cosmologies (Viveiros de Castro 1998) to the Indian subcontinent. In this section, we will explore some common ground. Let’s start by noting that Philosophical Posthumanism shares a striking point in common with the ancient spiritual tradition of Jainism and the doctrine of anēkāntavāda (non-absolutism), that is, the principles of pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints (cf. Sethia 2004). Reality is perceived differently from diverse points of view; no single point of view can be regarded as the complete one, as John M. Koller underlines: “This ability to see the other person as no longer the ‘other’ . . . , underlies the capacity for empathy and sympathy with the other that operationalizes ahimsā” (2004: 86–87). Ahimsā is a Sanskrit word which literally means “not to harm”; it is the principle of non-violence toward all living beings, which is foundational in different religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. What are the roots of perspectivism in Western philosophy? The term “perspectivism” etymologically bears a phenomenological, embodied legacy, coming from Latin, in the formula: per (prefix meaning “through”) plus the verb specere,3 which means “to look at.”4 Within the history of Western philosophy, the roots of Perspectivism shall be found, more specifically, in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously stated in On the Genealogy of Morals (1887):5 “Let us be on guard against the dangerous old conceptual fiction that posited a ‘pure, will-less, painless, timeless knowing subject’ . . . . There is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective ‘knowing’ ” (2000: 555).

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