Post-humanist And Vitalist Posthumanism - 709 Words

Vitalist posthumanism on the other encompasses various philosophical orientations and philosophers, including the feminist theorist, non-representational theories, and more than human geographers who take inspirations from the deconstructive posthumanism but rather analyze humans’ well-being in a different ontology which Lorimer refers to as nonessentialist, vitalist ontology (Lorimer, 2009). Notable scholars who inspired this strand of posthumanism include Isabelle Stengers, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, and among other equally important scholars. The main argument of this strand of posthumanism especially from the work of Bruno Latour and his contemporaries is that, humans have never been modern and challenged the dualism perpetuated by†¦show more content†¦They are averse to the centrality position accorded humans and their consciousness over other beings. This aversion or challenge to the centrality of humans in geographical analysis as emphasized by humanistic ge ography is conspicuous when Latour states that â€Å"challenging the idea that humans occupy a separate and privileged place among other beings has been the central goal of a now familiar posthumanist agenda in geography† (cited in Anderson 2004, p.4). The third similarities shared by the deconstructive and vitalist posthumanism is that both strands shared a similar epistemological perspective. They both shared a seemingly analogous epistemology and that is an epistemology that is grounded in situated knowledge and not the kind of epistemology advanced by the humanistic geography which is constructed on the solitary human subject (Lorimer, 2009). By situated knowledge, it denotes a knowledge that is explicit to a situation, hence not having a universal applicability. Differences between Deconstructive posthumanism and Vitalist posthumanism Despite the commonalities between the deconstructive and vitalist humanisms discussed in the previous section, there are some differences that can be deciphered between these two strands. First and foremost, both strands differ from an ontological standpoint. Whilst vitalist posthumanism has a comprehensible ontology, the deconstructive posthumanism are anti-ontological in their approach (Lorimer, 2009). Secondly, the