Transhumanism in Analytical Prospects of Classical and Non-Classic Sociology
Authors: Shcherbina A. V. 
Published: July 2020

Introduction. The purpose of the study is to analyze and generalize the views on transhumanism (TH), presented in the modern discourse, and conceptual approaches to assessing the consequences of its spread. The relevance of the sociological analysis of TH is determined by the intensity of discussions and the inconsistency of its assessments in social media and the expert community, the growth of its international influence and the threats of the implementation of new norms set by the ideology of TH. The scientific novelty of the work consists in a typological interpretation of the concept of TH in its activity and information and communication aspects.

Methodology and sources. In the work the results of studies presented in domestic and foreign publications on TH are used, as well as the materials of the public pages of the online communities Transhumanism and Transhumanism Without Borders in the social networks VKontakte and LiveJournal. Explanatory models of classical and non-classical sociology are involved: the theory of imitation of G. Tarde, the sociocultural approach of E. Durkheim, the structural-functional analysis of T. Parsons, the genealogical analysis of M. Foucault, the theory of rationality of J. Habermas. The historical-genetic method is used, which is adequate to the individualizing nature of socio-historical knowledge.

Results and discussion. TH is a new global ideology that configures images of the social world dating back to archaic myths with representations of a synthetic theory of evolution, technoscience, and social philosophy. TH is an ideology adequate to the conditions that gave rise to it and a new type of social subject: weakening nation-states and the formation of the information contour of global society, a new communication infrastructure as a space for universal material and spiritual exchange, a new social subject – “communities” mobilized to fight for personal rights and self-determination in the anthropological field. The lifestyle constructed in the experimental mode is given a normative value. TH meets the imperative of globalization as a cultural ideology, since it interprets culture as a universe of methods, tools, and technologies that allow a person to rationally influence himself. Rationality in the TH is the highest value, a criterion for assessing and selecting the normative constructions of the future, developed by communities (minorities), which are underlined by features of ethnicity and cultural and historical identity.

Critical arguments and polemics with TH in religious discourse are examined. The ideological status of TH is discussed. There is a radicalization in the TH of the ideas of liberalism and communism. TH is being studied as a platform uniting the ideological subcultures of communities oriented toward “rationality”, the analysis of which draws on the potential of non-classical sociology.

Conclusion. TH is a utopia in a specific sense: it is a socio-anthropological practice, represented in the theoretical consciousness as an image of the future, and in practical terms as an experimental present. We must evaluate the social consequences of the spread of the ideology of TH at the same time by methods of historical analysis and futuristic modeling.