The potential to clone augment and repair human beings is pushing the veryconcept of the human to its limit. Fantasies and metaphors of a supposedlymonstrous an... » 

The potential to clone augment and repair human beings is pushing the veryconcept of the human to its limit. Fantasies and metaphors of a supposedlymonstrous and inhuman future increasingly dominate films art and popularculture. On the Human Condition is an invigorating and fascinatingexploration of where the idea of the human stands today. Given the damage humanbeings have inflicted on each other and their environment throughout historyshould we embrace humanism or try and overcome it? Dominique Janicaud exploresthese urgent questions and more. He argues that whilst we need to avoidapocalyptic talk of a post human condition as embodied in technology such ascloning we should neither fall back on a conservative humanism nor becometechnophobic. Drawing on illuminating examples such as genetic engineering thenovel Frankenstein the legendary debate between Sartre and Heidegger overhumanism and the work of Primo Levi Domnique Janicaud also explores the roleof fantasy in understanding the human condition and asks where the line liesbetween the human inhuman and the superhuman. «