Some strangeness in the proportion, or how to stop worrying and learn to love the mechanistic forces of darkness

Eric Dietrich

pp. 349-352

in: Evan Selinger (ed), Affect, agency, intentionality, and responsibility, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 7 (3), 2008.

Abstract

Understanding humans requires viewing them as mechanisms of some sort, since understanding anything requires seeing it as a mechanism. It is science's job to reveal mechanisms. But science reveals much more than that: it also reveals enduring mystery—strangeness in the proportion. Concentrating just on the scientific side of Selinger's and Engström's call for a moratorium on cyborg discourse, I argue that this strangeness prevents cyborg discourse from diminishing us.