Saturday, December 31, 2016

Eugenics, Techne, Self-Overcoming

Two main stages of Techne are: 1. Learn a causal pattern, and 2. Actuate it.  Techne this involves a mastery of the discovered pattern.  Now, Eugenics, e. g. crop rotation, is an example of Techne.  Thus, so, too, is Human Eugenics, e. g. miscegenation.  But, because the mastery involved is of Humans, by Humans, Human Eugenics exemplifies Self-Mastery, or what Nietzsche calls Self-Overcoming.  As a response to the procreative impulse, this exercise of Techne is an alternative to succumbing to it, to detachment from it, and to sublimate it to a different creative activity.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Instinct, Techne, Eugenics

Corresponding to the Nature vs. Artifaction contrast is that of Instinct vs. Techne.  Accordingly, whether or not Technology is conceived as inherently corrupt depends on whether or not Nature connotes 'divinely created'.  For example, according to one myth, the Promethean, Techne is stolen from the gods, but enhances human life.  However, according to another, the acquisition of Techne by Adam and Eve is an act of disobeying a deity, as a result of which, reliance on Technology is the defining characteristic of a 'fallen' condition.  Now, while in the former myth, the primary content of Techne is fire, in the latter it is the reproduction of life.  Thus, whether or not Artifactual Human Eugenics is 'evil' depends on the concept of Nature that is presupposed.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Will to Power and Artifactual Human Eugenics

In the Prologue of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche alludes to the overcoming of Man by the Superman, a process that he later terms Self-Overcoming, which is a mode of the Will to Power. Now, 'man' is ambiguous--it can connote either the species or an individual member, but because of the common association of Nietzsche with Individualism, his Superman in this passage is usually interpreted to be an individual entity.  However, in #960 of the Will to Power collection, as Kaufmann insists, what Nietzsche posits as superior to humans is a "race", to be produced by miscegenation, not by purification, as has been held by Nazis and others.  So, in at least that passage, Artifactual Human Eugenics exemplifies the Will to Power.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Natural, Artificial, Artifactual

The Natural-Artificial antithesis of common parlance is derived from that of divine creation vs. human manufacture, which is why 'artificial' is often a derogatory term.  But, the Theological prejudice latent in that usage is exposed by contrast with Spinoza's system, according to which human making is an extension of God's creativity within Nature.  So, to avoid confusion, 'Artificial' can be replaced by 'Artifactual', which does not entail 'non-Natural'.  Thus, for example, the expression 'artificial selection', of various branches of Biology, can be rendered as 'artifactual selection'.  Likewise, Artifactual Human Eugenics, e. g. the purchase from a sperm bank based on the characteristics of the donor, is no crime against Nature, but, rather, is an extension of a eugenic instinct that is inherent in the species' drive to propagate itself.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Natural Eugenics and Artificial Eugenics

According to Darwin and a few others, Sexual Selection is a variety of Natural Selection, in which the seeking of optimal characteristics is the motivation for the choice of a partner in the reproductive process.  Hence, Natural Selection can also be termed Natural Eugenics.  Now, this drive is a Species drive, even if it is superficially interpreted as a sexual 'like' of an individual member of the Species.  Thus, it has more in common with the Unconscious of Schopenhauer than with that of Freud.  Now, the term Artificial Selection is sometimes used as a contrast to Natural Selection, so, likewise, it can also be called Artificial Eugenics, a contemporary example of which is the purchase by a woman from a sperm bank based on some of the characteristics of its donor.  However, the Natural-Artificial distinction is not clear.  For, the capacity to revert to 'artificial' means can itself be the expression of a Species drive, in which case Artificial Eugenics is only a special case of Natural Eugenics.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Eugenics and Superhumanism

Only barely inferrable from the texts is the influence of the concept of Human Eugenics on the arc of Nietzsche's oeuvre.  It is clearly relevant to his projection of a transition from Human to Superhuman, and it explains the supplanting of the Will to Live by the Will to Power as his elucidation of the Dionysian principle.  Indeed, he is aware that the mastery of the former by Eugenic techniques might constitute not a transcendence of a Species drive to propagate itself, but, to the contrary, evidence that Will to Power, not Will to Live, has been the true character of that drive all along.  Eugenics thus distinguishes Nietzschean from Darwinian Superhumanism.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Atomism and Nationalism

According to Atomism, Relations are External, i. e. an Atom exists independently of any Relation with other Atoms into which it might enter.  So, any Polity that needs trade with another is not an Atom.  Now, whether or not there is or has been a Polity that is self-sufficient is uncertain, or, conversely, one is not to be found among the known Polities of past and present.  Nevertheless, the Nation has always been treated as an Atom, not only in the major works of Modern Political Philosophy, but, in common practice, as well, as routine and pervasive Patriotism in everyday affairs regularly expresses.  In either case, the implicit Atomism is inadequate, and is a fiction that is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Superhumanism and Social Darwinism

It is said that cockroaches could survive a nuclear war that would destroy the human race.  On the other hand, there is no question that Humans are more complex organisms than are cockroaches. Thus, there is no correspondence between Evolution and Survival, i. e. between increasing in complexity, and staying alive, an equivocation that is at the heart of Darwinism.  Likewise, there is no correspondence between so-called Social Darwinism, based on the 'survival of the fittest' principle, and Superhumanism.  Indeed, there is no correspondence between Humanism and Social Darwinism, since the latter does not recognize any essential difference between humans and cockroaches.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Will to Power and Origin of a Superhuman Species

The outcome of a Self-Overcoming of the Human species qua Species, implicit in the Will to Power, but unexplored by him, is currently virtually unimaginable.  Perhaps it might originate a Superhuman species that has added a capacity for extraterrestrial survival.  But, if so, the impetus is not the latter, but the principle of Self-Overcoming, with Survival in such a new habitat a pre-condition of further developments. In other words, even if the Will to Power coincides with Darwinian Evolution in some respects, they differ in one crucial one--while Darwinism vacillates between Evolution and Survival as its primary principle, for Nietzsche, the Will to Power is unequivocally prior to any Will to Live.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Will to Power and Species

Whether or not he intends it as such, Nietzsche is claimed as an influence by several subsequent political movements: Naziism, Straussism, and Randism, for example.  In each case, to varying degrees of radicality, the theme is an Inegalitarianism derived from cherry-picked passages espousing the Will to Power.  Now, as has been previously discussed, that interpretation of the Will to Power, which Nietzsche unarguably encourages, is at odds with a more rigorously developed version of the concept, in which the species, not any of its individual members, is the subject of the volition.  Thus, undeveloped by Nietzsche himself, though casually considered by Heidegger, among a few others, is the concept of Technological progress as the goal of a Species Will to Power.  On the other hand, not at all considered has been the possibility of the Will to Power qua Self-Overcoming as applied to the Species.  In either case, this alternative version of the Will to Power entails none of the Inegalitarianism that characterizes its counterpart.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Will to Power and Superhuman

The attribution, by both Nietzsche and commentators, of Will to Power to an individual organism, is not merely arbitrary, but is inconsistent with the derivation of it.  It is arbitrary because he offers no grounds for ascribing volition to precisely and only that combination of cells.  But more problematic is that Will to Power is his replacement for Schopenhauer's Will to Live, which is a principle with respect to which the 'Individual' is an irreal Appearance.  Rigorously derived, therefore, Will to Power likewise transcends the 'individual' Human.  But, if so, then the Super-man that is the product of the Will to Power qua Self-Ovecoming can only be an origination of a surpassing of 'Man' qua species, not qua individual member of the Human species.  Most commentators follow Nietzsche in ignoring the former meaning of Superhuman and its implications.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Superhuman and 'Superman'

The most common contemporary use of the term 'Superman' has little to do with Nietzsche's.  While the former refers to physical characteristics, the latter signifies a psychological self-overcoming: of Ressentiment, via the affirmation of Eternal Recurrence.  Nor does it have any relation to a Darwinian Superhuman being.  For, even though the latter does connote a projected possible physiological condition, it is one that is the product of a mutation of Human characteristics.  In sharp contrast, in the fiction, there is no biological connection between the inhabitants of Krypton and the Human species.  In other words, he might be a male, but there is no 'man' in Clark Kent's alter ego.  So, the common use of the term 'Superman' is far removed from the concept of the surpassing of the Human species that either is explicitly proposed by Nietzsche, or is implicit in Darwinism.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Superhumanism, Will to Power, Species

Superhumanism does not merely speculate about some possible future turn of events.  Rather, as only Nietzsche has begun to consider, it entails radical departures from conventional theses entailed in Humanism.  In Biology, it posits Growth, rather than Life, as the fundamental principle; in Psychology, Will to Power vs. Will to Live; in Darwinism, Evolution vs. Survival; in History, Progress vs. Peace.  So, Superhumanism is potentially applicable to current Political Philosophy.  For example, in an application of Will to Power that is rarely considered--to the Species, political organization is governed by a general Growth that is a prelude to the emergence of a superior species.  On that basis, a program of strengthening each individual Human, in contrast with both Humanism that promotes Equality amongst members, and sub-Humanism, e. g. Social Darwinism, that promotes the strengthening of only some members, is prescribed.  The type of organization that is optimal for actualizing that program can then be determined.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Superhumanism and Political Philosophy

Since Superhumanism connotes a post-Human historical period, any corresponding Political Philosophy can only be speculated about. Indeed, in such a society, e. g. extraterrestrial, currently unimaginable entities, etc., such a thing as political organization might even be a thing of the past. Still, one feature that is entailed in the concept is the prior achievement of a Humanist society.  Now, as has been previously discussed, that achievement consists in some version of Cosmopolitanism, i. e. of a Planetary society.  Accordingly, two presumed interpretations of the concept of Political Superhumanism are quite inadequate to it.  One, Naziism, is a regression to Tribalism, the other, Social Darwinism, the basic principle of which, Egoism, hardly transcends Human principles.  To the contrary, each of these exemplifies a dehumanization that Humanism has sought to overcome.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Humanism and Superhumanism

A criticism of Humanism that is perhaps more formidable than the familiar ones proposed by Supernaturalism, e. g. that it is 'Relativistic', is ironically implicit in the source of the most completely defined concept of Human.  That source, as has been previously discussed, is Darwin, who improves upon all prior concepts, by offering a genesis of the species that is independent of Supernatural premises. However, at the same time, he opens up the possibility of a Naturalist transcendence of Humankind, though he never develops it.  Instead, it is, of course, Nietzsche, with his concept of Ubermensch, that pursues the theme, in expositions usually misunderstood as 'Inegalitarian'.  Rather, his doctrine is more accurately characterized as Superhumanism, which contrasts with Humanism just as Supererogatory compares to Deontic.  The Superhuman is thus a Naturalist revision of the Supernatural as the self-overcoming of the Human, e. g. Jesus as more highly evolved, rather than an incorporeal perfection, a transcending that Humanism suppresses.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Humanism and Relativism

The charge that Humanism "deifies" Humankind is a moment in a special case of the Absolutism vs. Relativism debate that is a perennial Philosophical topic.  To Absolutists, Relativism is a threat because, among other features, it lacks intellectual and behavioral standards, the consequences of which are dire.  Now, usually ignored in the debate is the ambiguity of 'Relativism', which can mean either 'Subjectivism', or 'Perspectivism'.  Indeed, the former, according to which judgment is private, does elude evaluation, but that is not the case with the latter.  For, a Perspective can be more or less comprehensive, and, hence, can be subject to evaluation as, correspondingly, better or worse.  Scientific theories are judged on those terms, and Utilitarianism offers a formula for evaluating conduct as more or less comprehensively beneficial.  So, the criticism that Humanism lacks Intellectual or Moral standards is groundless.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Humanism and the Deification of Humankind

One prominent criticism of Humanism is that it "deifies" Humankind.  The source of the criticism is typically a proponent of some variety of Supernaturalism.  Now, one unclarity in the charge is the meaning of the term 'deify'.  If it means 'posits to be the creator of the universe', it would be difficult to find a Humanist who believes that.  Likewise for the interpretation 'posits to be omnipotent'.  More likely is that Humanists are being accused of presuming that Humans are the ultimate judges of their conduct.  Implicit in the accusation is that there is a higher authority that can be cited, and that higher authority is usually the author of the Ten Commandments.  However, the problem with that premise is that it is question-begging: it groundlessly asserts that that author is a deity, and not Moses, a human.  So, this criticism of Humanism is less than objectively compelling.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Humanism and Nationalism

Humanism implies a concept of Human that is liberated from Supernatural premises, though, as has been previously discussed, that ambition has not always been successful.  It also implies a concept of Human that is distinct from a concept of semi-Human.  Now, one case of the latter is a concept of some subset of the species, e. g. a Nation.  Thus, Nationalism is not a Humanist concept.  In other words, none of the major works of Modern Political Philosophy, i. e. that of Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Rousseau, or Smith, can be classified as fully Humanist.  It is only when the entire world is the locus of a political model, e. g. in Kant's or Marx's model, that all of Humankind is being taken into consideration.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Humanism, Biology, Evolutionism

As has been previously discussed, Marx proposes that it is the manufacturing and use of tools that is the defining characteristic of the Human species.  But, that capacity is impossible without unique Biological traits such as flexible opposable thumbs that can grip and manipulate tools. Still, since it is not inconsistent with Genesis 1, Comparative Biology does not decisively ground Humanism.  Rather, that is accomplished by Evolutionism, which proposes an origin of the species to counter the familiar account of Supernaturalism. Thus, Humanism does not complete the liberation from Medieval Theocratism until the arrival of Darwinism.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Humanism and Economics

As has been previously discussed, Nietzsche can be interpreted as proposing that Psychology, especially with its Will to Power principle, is the distinctively Humanist field of study.  However, his Naturalization of the Soul, like Spinoza's, fails to adequately distinguish Humans from other Natural entities.  In contrast, Smith and Marx each presents a differentiating characteristic: the former, barter, the latter, the manufacturing of tools.  In other words, they agree that the specifically Human activity is Economics.  Accordingly, the familiar characterization of the latter as 'dismal' might reflect a Theocratic judgment of the post-Eden Human condition in general.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Humanism, Psychology, Will to Power

The introduction of Psychology as a Philosophical method in a work entitled Human, All Too Human entails a concept of Soul that is not Supernatural.  Thus, insofar as the Supernatural realm is conceived as consisting in Eternal Life, the positing of a Will to Life as the fundamental Psychological principle fails to decisively humanize the concept, a problem which unnecessarily complicates Spinoza's exposition in Part V of the Ethics. Instead, it is Nietzsche's later proposal, that the Will to Power is the fundamental Psychological principle, that is appropriately Humanist, since it entails change, which Eternity precludes.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Pantheism and Humanism

One Modern system that decisively breaks from Medieval Supernaturalism is Spinoza's Naturalist Pantheism.  The constituents of this system are Modes, three main characteristics of each of which are: 1. A conatus by which it persists in its being; 2. The maintaining of spatial contiguity and coherence as it changes location; and 3. Can be either simple or compound.  Thus, contrary to some interpretations, a Human is not the only kind of Mode, and, indeed, Spinoza offers no criterion for distinguishing Human Modes from others, i. e.: "I am not able here to explain" (Ethics II, xiii, note) the distinction.  So, even though his Pantheism can be classified as Secular, it is not specifically Humanist.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Humanism, Theocratism, Rationality

The liberation of Humanism from Theocratism has not been as decisive as its equivalence to Secularism seems to suggest.  For, one of its defining characteristics of Humankind is Rationality, but, as is evinced by the various arguments known as 'proofs of the existence of God', which continue to have their advocates centuries after the Medieval era, Rationality and Supernaturalism are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  So, in at least some varieties of Humanism, it is not Theocratism per se that is eliminated, but, rather dogmatic Theocratism.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Humanism and Method

Modern Philosophy might be taken to be Humanist because of a foundation in human experience--'I Think', or a Sense-Datum.  However, Humanism excludes supernatural premises, and each of those, upon further scrutiny, is revealed as an element of a supernatural system: the Cartesian I is an incorporeal Soul the existence of which presupposes that of a Deity, while, as Berkeley shows, a Sense-Datum is actually an incorporeal Phenomenon that is a sign the source of which is a Deity.  More important, neither of those two is the foundation of their respective systems.  For, each is preceded by a Method--a Rationalist or an Empiricist establishment of Certainty, and it is Method per se which is irreducibly Human.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Species and Humanism

The term 'Humanism' has had a variety of meanings, perhaps the most general of which is 'Secularism'.  Accordingly, Modern Political Philosophy can be conceived as a Humanist response to Medieval Theocratism.  Now, in the vast literature on the topic, there seems to be little consideration of the implication of Evolutionism, and, in particular, of the concept of Species, for that of Humanism.  Thus lacking has been the circumscription of the scope of the latter as Planetary, rather than as, as is usually the case, indefinitely localized.  One exception has been Modern Political Philosophy, which implicitly treats Humanism as a Nationalist phenomenon.  So, Nationalism is no longer adequate to what might be called Evolutionist Humanism.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Socialism, Theory, Practice

In general, Modern Political Philosophy is a type of Theory, i. e. its various propositions are assertoric, with the ambition of being apodeictic.  Now, even though Marx exorts Philosophers to privilege Practice over Theory, several of the cardinal features of Marxism are Theoretical, notably the concepts of Dialectical Materialism and Socialism, to the latter of which he cannot avoid attributing a permanent Goodness, which, as has been previously discussed, entails a contradiction of the principle that Humankind has no fixed nature. The shortcoming in this procedure is not exposed until the Pragmatists re-conceive standard components of Theory, e. g. Ideas and Concepts, as fundamentally Practical, i. e. as plans of action, rather than as substantives or predicates of assertions.  Accordingly, for example, Socialism is not a condition to be arrived at once certain pre-conditions are met, but a blueprint for organizing society.  As such, it is a Good, but only provisionally so, only so long as the construction is underway, just like any productive process.  In these terms, the Marxist does not have to contend with the aforementioned contradiction.

Monday, December 5, 2016

Marxism and Human Nature

Marx anticipates Existentialism by proposing that humankind has no fixed Essence, i. e. has a mutable nature. Correspondingly, he argues that Socialism is only an historically contingent optimal mode of organization, since it is possible only subsequent to the attainment of a certain level of Industrial Capitalism.  However, he also conceives Socialism as, once estabilished, to be thereafter permanently optimal, which would seem to imply, correspondingly, that humankind has then, if not acquired an Essence, at least arrived at a thereafter immutale nature.  Now, in a likely effort to correct that apparent inconsistency, some Marxists have argued that perpetual Revolution is the ultimate goal.  However, they do not conceive that as entailing an eventual surpassing of Socialism, rather, that such persistence is required to preserve Socialism from unremitting threats, both external and external.  So, whether or not, according to Marxism, Humankind has a potential fixed nature, corresponding to which is a permanent optimal Polity, is uncertain.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Evolution, Survival, Political Philosophy

A significant unclarity in Evolutionism is whether the drive to generate more complex entities is a means to Survival, or is for its own sake.  The distinction bears upon Political Philosophy.  For, if Evolution is a means to Survival, then social progress aims at some permanent optimal condition, e. g. Kant's Cosmopolity, Socialism, etc.  But, if Human History is a prelude to the arrival of some new, more advanced Species, then it might aim at a social order that is the breeding ground of the relevant mutation, and what such a Polity might consist in seems to be anybody's guess.  So, Evolutionism reduces Political Philosophy to a contingent, temporary project.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Political Philosophy, Evolution, Extraterrestriality

That a Polity consists in a structured multiplicity transcends circumstances, since it follows from the concept of a Society as an Organism.  But what that structure might be is a function of Historical and Geographical conditions.  Now, on the premise that the Telos of the Human Species is permanent harmonious integration into the ecosystem of the Earth, the political system that that would entail would be definable by a Political Philosophy as an Ideal that is also concrete.  However, that premise is dubitable for a least two reasons.  First, as is implicit in Darwinism, and is explicitly proposed by Nietzsche, the Telos of Humankind might be an entity or species that surpasses it in some respect.  Second, an extraterrestrial continuation of Humankind is no longer implausible.  So, in each of these cases, political organization is a means to a subsequent development, and not an Ideal, which entails stable finality.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Political Philosophy, Economics, Ecology

Insofar as a Political Philosophy abstracts from spatio-temporal conditions, it abstracts from Economics, a system in which a society is rooted in a habitat that is the source of its resources.  So, Marx's Materialism does not merely restore Economics to Political Philosophy, it derives the latter from the former, because Economic activity is the foundation of all social relations.  However, Marxism conceives an environment as completely at the disposal of human Techne, thereby abstracting from the need to, conversely, adapt to a habitat, as well.  Thus, the Marxist concept of Economics is itself abstracted from Ecology, which studies the human species in all its interactions with its environment.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Evolutionism, Political Philosophy, Geography

As has been previously discussed, the abstraction of Political Philosophy from historical circumstances can obscure the contingency of some of the features of a proposed model, e. g. the Nationalism typical of the Modern era.  Similarly prone is abstraction from geographical circumstances.  For, entailed in such abstraction is a neglect of environmental factors in the determination of the optimum social organization.  For example, in a more edenic climate, rigid collective labor organization might be less required than in a less naturally hospitable habitat, with the implication that the former might be more politically Individualistic than the latter.  So, a Political Philosophy derived from Evolutionism might be more mindful of such environmental nuances.