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Transcendence of the human far beyond AI : Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony' and Schopenhauerian Eschatology

University of British Columbia. Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies

Since the Renaissance, humanity has aspired beyond the human. The technological development in recent decades has been extraordinary, leading to new attempts to overcome the all-too-human conditions. We dream of conquering death, upgrading our bodies into perfect performance machines, and enhancing our intelligence through bio-nanotechnology. We are familiar with the side effects: alienation, stress, anxiety, depression. This lecture contends that Franz Kafka’s enigmatic body of work at its core harbors a yearning to transcend the human. Through a close reading of the narrative In the Penal Colony, it is demonstrated that this yearning is far more radical, uncompromising and norm-dissenting than any modern vision of extending and optimizing human life. Instead of the modern ego-concerned affirmation of life and the body that hides behind much of AI, modern technology, and ideology, Kafka seeks a radical vision of total transformation and transcending the human into ‘nothingness’. The lecture shows that this transformation corresponds to core concepts in Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy, primarily his doctrine of the denial of the will to live and asceticism. Instead of the species-narcissistic affirmation of life and the body that lurks behind much of AI and modern technology, Kafka strives for a definitive overcoming of the life we desire.

eng

2025-07-09

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91537

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/