Hominisation and humanisation: a perspective from the sociology of technics
Abstract
This essay will present a few challenges to a new Humanism from the
perspective of the sociology of technics. For this purpose Humanism will be described
as an effort to intervene in the process of human formation or hominisation. In order
to intervene an understanding of this process is needed. Hominisation starts in the
Palaeolithic era: technics, religion, language and the human being mutually give birth
to one another. Reference will be made especially to the work of Leroi-Gourhan and
Girard to analyse this point. Hominisation, however, is a continuous process and has
not come to an end. The most recent phase of our hominisation is the industrial
revolution: Western modernisation seems to be the future of global humanity. But
industrialisation spreads unevenly, leading to a varied network of the human conditions,
of advantages and disadvantages. A critical assessment of Africa’s position in the global
politics of technics will lead to a description of inhuman conditions as part of the
network of industrialisation. The scale and extent of misery tolerated and produced by
this era of hominisation could be considered as a possible springboard from where to
reflect on a contemporary global Humanism even after the ‘death of God’ in modernity.
But to what extent does modernisation allow intervention in the process of industrial
hominisation in order to give it the quality of humanization? Aspects of theories on
multiple or alternative modernities are considered. A suggestion to the kind of humanist
orientation solicited by the inhuman condition of misery is presented with reference to
Nussbaum’s capabilities theory. Finding the content of a new Humanism is, however,
only a beginning of a new humanization. The technical conditions for the possibility of
a new Humanism and of its transmission are reflected on. In conclusion, on the basis
of the preceding analyses, five technics-orientated tasks for a new Humanism will be
identified.