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Interview

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome, and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Posthuman Studies. His most recent book, On Transhumanism, was recently published by Penn State University Press. He chats about transhumanism with Roberto Manzocco.

First of all Stefan, why do they call you the ‘bad boy of philosophy’? What have you done?

In 2009 the Journal of Evolution and Technology published my article ‘Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism’. Many transhumanists, Nietzsche scholars and ethicists wrote articles in response to my claims there.

As part of the debates around gene technologies at the beginning of the millennium, in his reflections on liberal eugenics [such as genetic screening for healthy babies, Ed], the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas identified transhumanism with all-too-German Nietzschean breeding fantasies. In my article I agree that transhumanism affirms versions of liberal eugenics; but in contrast to Habermas, I regard central aspects of both transhumanism and liberal eugenics as plausible and morally justified.

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