The Transhumanism and the Philosophy of the Technique of the Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze transhumanism, considering the possible contributions arising from Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy of technique. It is assumed that, at the core of Ortega y Gasset’s thinking on the relationship between man and technology, lies the genesis of transhumanism as a philosophical current that emerged in our time. In other words, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate how the philosophy of technology, present in Ortega y Gasset’s thinking in the 20th century, can contribute to the philosophical foundation of transhumanism of the present time, especially technological transhumanism. To this end, Ortega y Gasset’s conceptions on the meaning of technology will be presented, considering their implications and overlaps in the configuration of transhumanism, which culminates in the main thesis presented in this study: technological transhumanism, in its historical sense, would therefore be the very fatality of the human condition in the world in the Orteguian way. Even though this close approximation is observed, the article concludes by identifying what distances Ortega from certain trends in contemporary transhumanism.