Knowing Humanity in the Social World

This book examines Fuller’s pioneering vision of social epistemology. It focuses specifically on his work post-2000, which is founded in the changing conception of humanity and project into a ‘post-‘ or ‘trans-‘ human future. Chapters treat especially Fuller’s provocative response to the changing boundary conditions of the knower due to anticipated changes in humanity coming from the nanosciences, neuroscience, synthetic biology and computer technology and end on an interview with Fuller himself. While Fuller’s turn in this direction has invited at least as much criticism as his earlier work, to him the result is an extended sense of the knower, or ‘humanity 2.0’, which Fuller himself identifies with transhumanism. The authors assess Fuller’s work on the following issues: Science and Technology Studies (STS), the university and intellectual life, neo-liberal political economy, intelligent design, Cosmism, Gnosticism, agent-oriented epistemology, proactionary vs precautionary principles and Welfare State 2.0.

Val Dusek is author of The Holistic Inspirations of Science, Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction and co-edited with Robert Scharff Philosophy of Technology, The Technological Condition. Dusek has previously written on C. S. Peirce, Marxism, the Science Wars, sociobiology and evolutionary psychology.Francis X Remedios is author of Legitimizing Scientific Knowledge: Steve Fuller’s Social Epistemology and numerous articles on Steve Fuller and social epistemology.