Introduction

Abstract

Implicit in virtually any discussion of humanism—its nature, meaning, and future—is concern with the manner in which human life is structured, marked off, and measured. That is to say, to speak of humanism is to speak about a particular metaphysics, a certain framing of what the human is (ontology) and the nature and content of what humans know (epistemology). Embedded in this framing of humanism is a simple, but far from simplistic, question: what are the possibilities for human life within a context of ongoing deep alteration; and, what might humanism say about and contribute to these possibilities? One of the compelling contexts for this question is technology, particularly as it relates to the human’s ability to alter the quality, length, depth, and general tone and texture of human life.