Toward a Non-humanist Humanism: Theory after 9/11

Assesses the limits and possibilities of humanism for engaging with issues of pressing political and cultural concern.

In his book The End of Education: Toward Posthumanism, William V. Spanos critiqued the traditional Western concept of humanism, arguing that its origins are to be found not in ancient Greece's love of truth and wisdom, but in the Roman imperial era, when those Greek values were adapted in the service of imperialism on a deeply rooted, metaphysical level. Returning to that qu...