Thesis: Heuristic Models and Practices for the Posthuman Self/ves
Abstract: Anchored in the question ‘how best to understand the human being and their conditions in the 21st century’, my project aims to develop a meta-theory of human nature/culture/structure adequate to the task of ethically and pragmatically orienting individuals within contemporary societies and environments. It investigates the human form-of-life as a process embedded within various physical, societal and symbolic environments as well as conditioned by characteristic conditions (ex: finitude, reflexivity, situatedness). I intend to design interpretative tools to represent the multi-dimensionality, as well as the variety of relationships, through which contemporary individuals’ subjectivity are constituted. My goal is to contribute to the re-conceptualization of the human subject currently underway in the posthumanist discourses of Braidotti (2019) and Haraway (1991; 2016) by offering open-ended models, metaphorical thought-experiments and practical techniques to assist individuals in their task of existentially ‘shaping’ their desired form-of-life.
Keywords: posthumanism, ethos, philosophy of life, subjectivation, self-representation, cognitive mapping, creative cartographies
Supervisor: Dr. Christine Daigle
Website: www.verorousseau.com
