Historical-Philosophical Aspects of the Problem of «Inhumane» in Sociocultural and Media Studies

Abstract

The idea of being «inhuman» is quite usual for the history of philosophy. With Aristotle, on the one hand, who first problematized the dialectics of the Slave and the Master, which later became an important part of Hegelianism and Marxism, as «dehumanization» and similar concepts of modern philosophy, on the other hand. For instance - the social constructivism. In Aristotle’s system, the role of the human himself belongs only to the Master, while the Slave is understood as a mere «tool» to him. In Physics, Aristotle also raises the question of the «inhuman» by introducing the notion of «Automaton», which denotes an occasion, which is the result of the act of something different from human, as opposed to the anthropic «Tyche». Similarly, the automaton is explained in the philosophy of Descartes. Despite the fact that the similar term «Cyborg», introduced by Donna Haraway, originated in a completely different philosophical tradition, the ontological foundations of all these concepts have a number of intersections, discussed in the following. Author tends to thematize the concept of «human» as an element of the production of knowledge and practices of power. Many social and media theorists, apart from Haraway, drew attention to the fact that the person himself as well as the surrounding practices, is a construct. First, we are talking about the communicative aspects of human existence could be influenced by discourse, which is also discussed in the report.