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License Agreement on scientific materials use.
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The image of Prometheus in the context of trans- and posthumanist thought: ethical aspects
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Irina Borisovna Kazakova
Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education
Evgenia Viktorovna Safonova
Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education
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Submitted:
April 24, 2026
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Abstract.
The purpose of the study is to identify the features of using the image of Prometheus as an ethical argumentation tool in the philosophy of transhumanism and posthumanism. The article examines the writings of representatives of transhumanism and posthumanist thinkers, in which the image of Prometheus serves to express or illustrate the ethical positions of these lines of thought. The paper describes and compares two ways of interpreting the image: the Promethean optimism of transhumanism, which emphasizes the moral right of man to technological progress, and the Promethean ambivalence of posthumanism, which draws attention to the ethical and existential problems of technological transformations of human nature. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, based on the material of philosophical and futurological texts of trans- and posthumanism, ethical connotations of the image of Prometheus as a symbolic expression of a humanistic and anthropocentric system of representations are revealed. As a result of the study, it was found that the image of Prometheus is equally in demand in both trans- and posthumanist discourse due to its correspondence to the key issues for both trends. At the same time, significant differences in its ethical interpretation have been revealed: transhumanism uses the Promethean myth to substantiate the moral legitimacy of technological improvement of man, while posthumanism turns to the image of Prometheus in order to criticize anthropocentrism and revise the traditional binary oppositions underlying humanistic ethics.
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Key words and phrases:
трансгуманистические технологии совершенствования человека
постгуманистическая критика антропоцентризма
философские интерпретации образа Прометея
гуманистическая этика
transhumanistic technologies of human improvement
posthumanistic criticism of anthropocentrism
philosophical interpretations of the image of Prometheus
humanistic ethics
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