ABSTRACT
The article explores the relationship between postmodernism, posthumanism, and evolutionary anthropology. In contrast to standard postmodernism, which provides just an updating of modernity, evolutionary anthropology (as here conceived) transcends the basic axiom of modernity, that of an unbreachable gap between man and world. It shows that humans are inherently worldly beings, deeply rooted in the process of evolution, and therefore participants in the process of life that share a great many traits with other living beings. Posthumanism, too, tries to establish a new framework for conceptualizing the human, one that equally leaves behind the modern assumption of human uniqueness and supremacy. Yet this is often done in a more declaratory than evidence-based manner. Turning to the scientific arguments of evolutionary anthropology might help posthumanism to become more solid. In an evolutionary perspective, two further main points of posthumanism—the fusion of human and artificial intelligence and human enhancement—appear quite natural. In cosmic and biotic evolution, matter and mind were never totally distinct, but coevolved, and enhancement was constitutive to human evolution from its beginning some million years ago. Evolutionary anthropology has a lot to offer to posthumanism.
