Humanism and the Posthuman Challenge: Bentham Lecture 2013

Presented by Professor Anne Phillips FBA, Graham Walls Professor of Political Science, London School of Economics.

Developments in cybernetics and biotechnology have prompted talk of this as a posthuman age. Does any of this make sense, and if so, what significance does it have for the continuing salience of Humanism and the figure of the human.

Professor Anne Phillips
Anne Phillips is Professor of Political and Gender Theory in the LSE Gender Institute and the Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government.

Professor Phillips is on sabbatical for the 2013/14 academic year.

She joined the LSE in 1999 as Professor of Gender Theory, and was Director of the Gender Institute until September 2004. She subsequently moved to a joint appointment between the Gender Institute and Government Department. She is a leading figure in feminist political theory, and writes on issues of bodies and property, democracy and representation, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. Much of her work can be read as challenging the narrowness of contemporary liberal theory.

In 1992, she was co-winner of the American Political Science Association's Victoria Schuck Award for Best Book on Women and Politics published in 1991 (awarded for Engendering Democracy). She was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Aalborg in 1999; was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Political Science Programme of the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2002-6; and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. In 2008, she received a Special Recognition Award from the Political Studies Association, UK, for her contribution to Political Studies. In 2012, she was awarded the title Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science.

About the British Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.