The Dark Side of Desire: Nietzsche, Transhumanism, and Personal Immortality

Adam Buben
2020 The Southern Journal of Philosophy  
Nietzsche has become embroiled in two interesting twenty-first century debates about advancing technology and its impact on human life, especially its meaning/value. The first focuses on Nietzsche himself and is concerned with the extent to which his views align with those of transhumanism. The second involves the not so blatantly Nietzsche-centric question of whether or not immortality, or radical life-extension, is desirable. Given that the desire for immortality, or at least some more
more » ... e (but not so permanent) approximation of it, is strongly associated with transhumanism, it seems that these two debates have some fairly significant overlap. Establishing what Nietzsche ultimately believes about such a core transhumanist issue will go a long way toward determining how sympathetic he would be to the transhumanist cause in general. I argue that while his views do not commit him to an all-encompassing disdain for immortality, his intolerance for immortality-seekers means that he might only be open to some of the more fringe understandings of transhumanism. Friedrich Nietzsche has become embroiled in two interesting twenty-first century debates that have to do with advancing technology and its impact
doi:10.1111/sjp.12393 fatcat:qk3czajk7vaklnme7wupanaebq