Overview

Examining the links between today's ideas of radical life extension and age-old notions of immortality. From Plato's notion of generation to Derrida's concept of survival to such modern phenomena as anti-aging treatments, cryogenics, cloning, and whole-brain uploads, Adam Rosenthal's Prosthetic Immortalities shows how the dream of indefinite life has always been a technological one: a matter of prosthesis. He argues that every biological instance of perpetual life, from one-celled organisms to rejuvenating jellyfish to Henrietta Lacks's 'immortal' cancer cells, always results in the transformation of the original being. There can, therefore, be no certainty of immortality. Yet, because finite mortal life is already marked by difference, division, and change, as Rosenthal concludes: 'the problem of immortality will not cease to haunt us'. Prosthetic Immortalities examines the persistence of humans' aspirations of deathlessness, showing that the link between immortalisation and prostheticisation is not unique to a single period but is, rather, a ubiquitous element of the discourse of immortality, encompassing both modern technoscientific efforts and religious discourses of an afterlife. Rosenthal asks to what extent the emergence of a virtual, posited, immortal presence follows from the tenets of empirical science and not simply from the discourse of biology but also, and more radically still, from biological organisation itself. Rosenthal ultimately argues that the discovery of biological immortals lifeforms that naturally have indefinitely long lifespans, such as cancer cells and bacteria present novel conceptual difficulties for traditional philosophical approaches to mortality and selfhood, asking whether it is life itself that first births immortalising prostheses.

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9781517916589

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"""Rigorous, compelling, and beautifully written, Prosthetic Immortalities is at the vanguard of the new wave in Derrida studies. Problematizing and deconstructing transhumanist technologies, Adam R. Rosenthal offers to readers both clarity and new understanding as he lucidly and insightfully illuminates Derrida’s notions of ‘lifedeath’ and survival in the contexts of biology, technology, and ontology."" —Nicole Anderson, founding editor, Derrida Today Journal   ""Adam R. Rosenthal conjures up the ghosts of metaphysics that return today through the promises of indefinite life from medical science and transhumanist speculations, moving brilliantly between science and science fiction. He provides us with the critical tools to exorcise the power of fascination exerted on us by discourses that claim to have a scientific status but are essentially based on our irrepressible fear of death."" —Francesco Vitale, author of Biodeconstruction: Jacques Derrida and the Life Sciences  "

"""Rigorous, compelling, and beautifully written, Prosthetic Immortalities is at the vanguard of the new wave in Derrida studies. Problematizing and deconstructing transhumanist technologies, Adam R. Rosenthal offers to readers both clarity and new understanding as he lucidly and insightfully illuminates Derrida's notions of 'lifedeath' and survival in the contexts of biology, technology, and ontology."" --Nicole Anderson, founding editor, Derrida Today Journal"

Author Information

Adam R. Rosenthal is associate professor of global languages and cultures at Texas A&M University. He is author of Poetics and the Gift: Reading Poetry from Homer to Derrida. David Wills is professor of French studies at Brown University and author of Prosthesis, also published by the University of Minnesota Press.

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