Abstract

The Ambiguity of Cyborg. Rethinking the Body and its Prostheses This paper proposes a critical reflection about the body’s status, starting from Donna Haraway’s theorization on cyborg. Human corporeality is conceived in its relationship with technology, with the aim of remarking the importance of this link in the evolution of our species. The cyborg image rises as a critic against the relations’ naturalization of domination and patriarchy, involved in the history of our culture and society. The Aristotelian distinction between free men and slaves, as a “natural” distinction among persons and technological tools, will be firstly analysed to deconstruct the classical idea of man. After a brief presentation of Haraway’s theory, her concept of cyborg as a hybrid of tools and living-body will be problematized by means of the perspective in philosophy of technology which proposes to rethink the status of technical organs. To sum up, this paper seeks to outline a not-reductionist theory of the body to generate a different comprehension of technological objects in continuity with the biological world.