Transhumanism is not Posthumanism: an Explication of Current Semantics of Concepts

In the last third of the twentieth century, such intellectual and social movements as transhumanism and posthumanism were institutionalised in Europe and America, and now they are spreading globally. Modern foreign research quite clearly differentiates the concepts of transand posthumanism. Nevertheless, researchers from Ukraine and neighbouring countries often do not distinguish these phenomena from each other. However, studies of post- and transhumanistic issues in Ukrainian Humanitaristics require coordination of the research vocabulary with the concepts of global science. The purpose of the study is to explicate the current semantic content of transhumanism and posthumanism, their differentiation and conceptualisation for correct integration into Ukrainian and neighbouring countries’ Humanitaristics. For the research methodology, the methods of semantic, terminological, and comparative analysis, semiotic and hermeneutic approaches are to explicate the current meaning of the terms transand posthumanism in the scientific literature and implement their semantic differentiation. Conclusions. Revealing the semantic patterns of trans- and posthumanism concepts in foreign scientific literature and primary sources allows for their semantic differentiation. Unlike the previous stages of their existence, today, trans- and posthumanism movements are quite shaped; they differ in aim and have different purposes. Transhumanism is an anthropocentric movement that seeks to overcome the limitations imposed by nature on humans, emphasising human superiority and the need to improve humanity through high-tech solutions. In contrast, posthumanism rejects the anthropocentric perspective and reconsiders the dominant hierarchical position of man in the universe to refute the strategies of species chauvinism (speciesism) — the assignment of life privileges to beings of a certain species