Introduction. Posthumanism meets Political Philosophy. For a Critical Posthumanist Reading of Political Philosophy

Abstract

The contemporary landscape – marked by climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, species extinction, and the shifting boundaries of the political community as we used to intend it – demands an urgent rethinking of inherited categories, to reassess the foundational concepts and frameworks of political philosophy. This monographic issue aims at responding to that demand by collecting and enhancing contributions that explore how the philosophical – scientific field of posthumanism(s), with its many cultural lines of thought, can inform, critique, and revitalise the theoretical way of coping with politics. This monographic issue offers a transdisciplinary inquiry into what it might mean to think – and act – politically in a more-than-human world. In doing so, it affirms the relevance of political philosophy while recognizing that its future lies in a posthuman expanded horizon – one that includes not only human reason and will, but also the agencies, materialities, and relations that shape our shared planetary conditions.