The Role of Posthuman in Fourth Industrial Revolution

• In Event: "Re-Placing" Aspirations in a Postindustrial Context

Abstract

This presentation re-thinks the history of the present, as it asks the philosophical question, ‘how did we get here?’. It seeks the genealogy of material, discursive and digital scholarship in order to understand the 21st century positioning of the 4th Industrial Education. This paper will use philosophy as method to trace the history of concepts - the concept of ‘Industrial’; the concept of ‘Revolution’; and the concept of ‘human’. This presentation teases out on the one hand how the notion of Education is related to such concepts and how human subjects are shaping and being shaped by it. On the other hand, it considers individual and collective commitments that are present and available to build sustainable human and non-human relations. As such, this presentation presents a call for both the philosophical re-thinking of concepts as well as the potential for the rethinking of what is the role of the human, the place of the human and the relationship between human and non-human agency. This presentation utilises the classical, modernistic, post-modern and new-materialist texts to outline the vibrancy and potential of thinking with the 4th Industrial Revolution and its impact on Education.

Authors

• Marek Tesar, The University of Auckland

• Sonja Arndt, University of Melbourne