Humanism and the Anthropocene
Recovering the Ethical Value of Humanity in the 21st Century
Humanism and the Anthropocene
Recovering the Ethical Value of Humanity in the 21st Century
Buying pre-order items
Ebooks and Audiobook
You will receive an email with a download link for the ebook or audiobook on the publication date.
Payment
You will not be charged for pre-ordered books until they are available to be shipped. Pre-ordered ebooks will not be charged for until they are available for download.
Amending or cancelling your order
For orders that have not been shipped you can usually make changes to pre-orders up to 72 hours before the publishing date.
Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available
Description
In response to the rise of anti-humanist thought, Tom Whyman proposes a new defence of humanism for the Anthropocene and the age of AI. We live in an age where humanity has taken on an importance to nature so central that we have become, as a species, the primary driver of geological change. But this recognition hardly fills us with a sense of pride at our achievements. Instead we are increasingly ambivalent about our own humanity: an ambivalence manifested from the academic humanities to cutting-edge AI research that seeks to remove the human altogether. But what does it mean to be 'human' in the first place? And how do we regain a sense of the ethical value of our humanity?
Answering these questions, this book advances a new theory of 'minimal humanism'. This involves the examination and acceptance of the 'human' as a concept of meaningful, practical, ethical, and theoretical importance. Whyman argues that humanity cannot help but matter to us, as reason is essentially a human act, and criticises philosophers' attempts to separate our animal nature from our rationality, arguing instead that they are dynamically intertwined with an ever-changing nature. And yet, Whyman emphasises, the humanism he presents is 'minimal', because, in agreement with anti-, trans-, and post-humanist critiques, he wishes to remind readers of humanism's importance without enshrining our species as the absolute pinnacle of Being.
In lively dialogue with neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism, Adorno, Marx, Midgley, Kant, and others, this is essential reading for anyone grappling with the ethical value of the 'human' in the 21st century.
Accessibility Information
Additional accessibility information
- EPUB 3.0
- Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
- WCAG level AA
- WCAG v2.2 compliant
- accessibility@bloomsbury.com
Hazards
The publication contains no hazards
Support for non-visual reading
- No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
- Has alternative text descriptions for images
Visual adjustments
Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)
Navigation
- Page list to go to pages from the print source version
- Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
- All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
- Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
- Purposes of all links are made clear
Rich content
Language tagging provided
Table of Contents
1 How to be a Naturalist
2 Natural-Historical Animals
3 Ethical Materialism
4 Why we (cannot help but) matter
Conclusion: Ordinary corrupt human life
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | 17 Sep 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 176 |
| ISBN | 9781350566576 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Reviews
Related Titles
