Our Posthuman Selves: How Will Discoveries in Neuroscience Alter Our Self Conception?

• 발행기관: 한국외국어대학교 영미연구소
• 저자명: Steve Dunn
• 간행물 정보: 『영미연구』제30집, 465~484쪽, 전체 19쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2014.02.28

영문 초록

This paper will examine how recent discoveries within the field of neuroscience have altered our view of the self. Special attention is paid to Catherine Malabou's work, What Should We Do with Our Brain, which explores how the current model of the brain based on plasticity has subtly influenced our notion of self-conception. Instead of recapitulating the idea of a fixed and stable self, plasticity could potentially cause a dramatic reevaluation of who we are, and how we think. The argument then expands to include many ideas that emerged within the field of posthumanism and attempts to demonstrate how the idea of the self, as conceptualized within the informational pattern posited by N. Katherine Hayles in her book, How We Became Posthuman, can be compared to the notion that we are our synapses as stated by the neuroscientist Joseph Ledoux. The humanist idea of a unified self is challenged throughout this paper, and ultimately, discarded altogether. What emerges in its absence though is a multivalent and fluid concept suggesting that many selves exist as opposed to just one.

목차

Ⅰ. Introduction

Ⅱ. Posthuman selves

Ⅲ. Neroscience and Self conception

Ⅳ. Conclusion

Works Cited

Abstract

키워드

Neuroscience Posthumanism Malabou Brain Self