Imagining Posthuman Care reconsiders the concept, philosophy, and practice of care following contemporary critical reorientations toward materiality, vulnerability and the posthuman.
Care is a vexing concept, largely because it is an idea, feeling, and behaviour all at once. Care is ubiquitous and commonplace, taken for granted in our everyday lives. Yet, it is a slippery, often fraught term for philosophy, which often reads care through a humanist lens.
Drawing on recent critical ‘turns’ toward animality, vulnerability, materiality and the posthuman, this project asks: how might the philosophy of care be reimagined in dialogue with posthumanism? How can the shared attention to embodiment, contingency and interdependence in posthumanism, new materialism, and philosophy of care be cultivated in ways that expand and enrich both perspectives?
Through research and public engagement activities, the project explores contemporary literary and cinematic representations of nonhuman companionship and assistance. In particular, it treats care robots, both real and imagined, as test cases for imagining the possibility of a posthuman ethics of care.