by JONATHAN METZGER
“Man is not alone in the universe” is a catchphrase among UFO enthusiasts. It is usually uttered in a quivering, slightly reproachful tone, probably meant to induce a brooding sense of an unknown world lurking somewhere out there. A world that is closing in on us, while we – at least most of us – remain oblivious.
There is nothing really wrong with the curiosity of UFO enthusiasts to explore extra-terrestrial life. But it is tempting to point out that we may just as well start digging where we stand and confront the fact that mankind is not alone on our “own” planet either – although two thousand years of western thought suggest precisely that.
Running throughout the canon of philosophical and political theory, from Aristotle and the Bible to Habermas and Rawls, is the assumption of the exclusiveness of man. Humankind – or some fraction thereof, such as “free citizens of Athens” or “adult males” – is seen as the only subject worth considering, while other life forms are reduced to objects of human conquest and sustenance or, at best, seen as resources, capital to manage.
Today, this cornerstone of western thinking is being challenged by a current of ideas sometimes somewhat bluntly labelled “posthumanism”, although Sarah Whatmore, professor of environment and public policy at Oxford University, has given it the more sympathetic term “more-than-humanism”.
“More-than-humanism” questions the consequences of the European Enlightenment’s humanistic reinterpretations of maxims such as “behold the man” (ecce homo) and “man is the measure of all things”. The main purpose of Enlightenment humanism, whose words of wisdom still generate by default nods of approval from most well-meaning intellectuals on the Left, was to offer a world order that could serve as a counterweight to religious blindness to the potential of human beings – a way of broadening the “circle of warmth” of ethical responsibility.
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