Transhumanism in Africa

The Prospects of Moral Enhancement and Its Challenges
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-22671-6
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Buch, Englisch, 164 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Philosophy of Engineering and Technology

This edited volume demonstrates how African philosophy can offer new ways to understand transhumanism and moral enhancement, which involve improving humans' moral, emotional, and cognitive capacities, genes, and physical abilities through scientific and technological interventions. These interventions aim to help individuals overcome some (if not all) biological and natural limitations, such as diseases, ageing, and even death, in order to become transhumans and posthumans. The volume considers how African values can either support and/or challenge transhumanism and moral enhancement from African philosophical perspectives. For example, one might defend moral enhancement by imagining a posthuman future in Africa or argue that it truncates the process of acquiring personhood within the African philosophical context. This volume is of great benefit to researchers, professionals, and students interested in exploring the prospects and challenges of transhumanism and moral enhancement from a perspective beyond the Western worldview.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chimakonam, Amara Esther

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Afrikanische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophie des Geistes, Neurophilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. On Transhumanism in Africa (Chimakonam).- Chapter 2. Moral Enhancement, Ubuntu, and the Space of Questioning (Janz).- Chapter 3. More than Human: Ubuntu and Genetic Engineering (Oelofsen).- Chapter 4. Morally Enhanced Cyborgs (Sorgner).- Chapter 5. A Moral Evaluation of Transhumanism Alignment with Botho’s Metaphysics (Sesiro).- Chapter 6. Can Morally Enhanced Individuals Attain Personhood Within An African Philosophical Context? (Fayemi).- Chapter 7. Should Africa Be Hopeful in the Emergence of Technologized Personhood? (Negedu).- Chapter 8. Will Moral Enhancement Lead to Technologized Personhood? (Chimakonam).- Chapter 9. Is There a Masculine Bias to Transhumanism? Insights from a (Trans)Human Conversation (Yu and Harris).- Chapter 10. Transhumanism and African Futures: Charting African Modernist Pathways to Human Enhancement (Abdul).- Chapter 11. Technology, Transhumanism and the Politics of Development in Africa (Oyekan).

Über Autor(innen)

Amara Esther Chimakonam, PhD , is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for African Phenomenology, Department of Philosophy, University of Fort Hare, South Africa. She obtained her PhD from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research primarily focuses on African philosophy, African phenomenology, ethics, Applied ethics (specifically bioethics: transhumanism, moral enhancement, surrogacy), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics. As a member of the Conversational School of Philosophy (CSP), she applies conversational and interrogatory methods in examining these fields from an African perspective. Her thesis was on the idea of transhumanism through an Afro-communitarian lens. She has published and presented several research papers at conferences, webinars, colloquia, and workshops. She recently propounded a personhood-based theory of right action as an African contribution to the field of ethics. AE Chimakonam has organized and co-organized several international conferences and has ongoing research collaborations with scholars in various universities. She has received awards and funding from various organizations such as the Commonwealth Scholarship and the John Templeton Foundation. Recently, Dr AE Chimakonam and colleagues received a British Academy Mentoring grant of £ 30,000. She is the editor-in-chief of the journal, Ezumezu: