Open AccessWhy Technoscience Cannot Reproduce Human Desire According to Lacanian Thomism
Author(s) -
Graham McAleer,
Christopher M. Wojtulewicz
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
forum philosophicum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2353-7043
pISSN - 1426-1898
DOI - 10.35765/forphil.2019.2402.13
Subject(s) - the imaginary , mirroring , analogy , epistemology , sophistication , psychoanalysis , sociology , centrality , philosophy , psychology , social psychology , aesthetics , mathematics , combinatorics
Being born into a family structure—being born of a mother—is key to being human. It is, for Jacques Lacan, essential to the formation of human desire. It is also part of the structure of analogy in the Thomistic thought of Erich Przywara. AI may well increase exponentially in sophistication, and even achieve human-like qualities; but it will only ever form an imaginary mirroring of genuine human persons—an imitation that is in fact morbid and dehumanising. Taking Lacan and Przywara at a point of convergence on this topic offers important insight into human exceptionalism.