Forskning

ZOONTOLOGY RESEARCH TEAM

One of the most basic and foundational philosophical enterprises is that which studies, delineates, defines, and comprehends the nature of existing things, otherwise known as metaphysics or first philosophy. Perhaps the most complex and interesting subdivision of these studies is that which concerns the nature of human being or existence. Briefly, understanding what it is to be human is thought to give us insight into who and what we are. It is unlikely that any other philosophical pursuit could be more integral to shaping our worldview than this one. This project takes up that inquiry from our current historical context; it endeavors to locate an ontology, what it means to be human, in the post-Enlightenment age.

This project is situated at the crossroads of philosophy, technoscience studies, animality studies, biology, evolution, ethics, and politics. This project endeavors to repudiate Enlightenment Humanism, or the hegemonic characterization of human ontology (what it is to be human) as an autonomous, rational, self-identical, stable subject. My research aims to contribute to an alternative vision of human ontology--a posthumanist understanding--one that can foster a more progressive socio-politcial landscape.