Essentially Embodied Kantian Selves and The Fantasy of Transhuman Selves

By “essentially embodied Kantian selves,” I mean necessarily and completely rational conscious, self-conscious, sensible (i.e., sense-perceiving, imagining, emoting), volitional or willing, discursive conceptualizing, judging, inferring) animals, persons, innately possessing dignity, fully capable not only of free agency, but also a priori knowledge analytic synthetic truths alike, with egocentric centering in manifestly real orientable space time. The basic theory essentially selves was spelled out by Kant over the course slightly less than two decades, between 1768 1787, above all, it flows from an empirical realist metaphysical reading “Refutation Idealism” that inserted into Postulates Empirical Thought section 1787 edition first Critique. In my opinion, all “human, all-too-human” creatures like us are, necessarily, selves. Let’s call thesis, for short, EEKST. If EEKST is true, then it’s impossible to exist independently our own living organismic animal bodies beyond deaths those bodies, whether temporarily permanently, any means whatsoever. Indeed, very ideas disembodied selves, their survival after death, human immortality, while minimally logically consistent, are fact conceptually empty incoherent, even impossibility such things, since term “myself” indexically picks self, whose core features require grounding particular body. According recent contemporary movement transhumanism, can as functional systems representational content inherently able be implemented realized digital-mechanical technology uploadable servers, survive accidental natural death server-limbo, downloaded technologically enhanced partially mechanical humanoid wholly artificially-created non-humanoid these new implementations realizations indefinitely long time, repeat process, possibly become immortal. Transhumanism metaphysically equivalent Swedenborgianism, which so effectively criticizes wittily derides his 1766 book, Dreams Spirit-Seer Elucidated Metaphysics. Moreover, more importantly, if then, just transhumanism impossible. And what’s more, existentially morally reprehensible. belief transhuman nothing reprehensible noumenal fantasy Hirngespinst.