In Defence of the Human Being

With the advancements of artificial intelligence, the digitalisation of the lived-in world and the reduction of the mind to neuronal processes humans seem more and more like a product of data and algorithms.

We understand ourselves through the image of our machines, while on the other hand we raise our machines and our brains to the status of new subjects. Philosopher and psychiatrist Thomas Fuchs opposes a humanism of embodiment to this self-objectification of humanity: Our corporeity, aliveness and embodied freedom are the foundations of a self-determined existence that only uses the new technologies as a resource instead of subjecting itself to it.

»It is a remarkable fact that humanism fell out of fashion in the last half of the 20th century, undermined not only by the rise of scientistic reductionism, but also by critical disruptions in some of the most influential European philosophical schools. In his Defence of the Human Being, Thomas Fuchs finds correcting resources in the advances made by embodied cognition. His embodied-enactive accounts rightly emphasize the relational, world- and other-oriented dynamics that constitute the human being, characterized by recognition and dignity. Faced with recent advances in AI, big data, virtualization and neuroscience, this book offers a critical re-anchoring for a truly embodied philosophical anthropology.« Shaun Gallagher, Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Excellence in Philosophy, University of Memphis

»In this original, important, and wide-ranging book, Thomas Fuchs provides a compelling critique of technologically driven, reductionist conceptions of human life. He reminds us of something fundamental to our nature, something that cannot be ignored or explained away: we are embodied, living beings, embedded in a larger social world and capable of free choice.« Mattthew Ratcliffe, Professor of Philosophy, University of York

»... very plausible and the cultural-theoretical sober-mindedness, which refrains from speculation, in particular encourage readers to keep pondering.« Mark Siemons, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Fuchs makes knowledgeable and clear arguments against the faults of a scientistic world view that posits a simple input-output logic for our brain.« Marlen Hobrack, taz. die tageszeitung