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The Perfectible Animal: Humanity as an Ideal

The Promethean tale of the birth of technology has popularized the notion that what sets us apart from other primates is our virtually limitless capacity to develop new skills. Self-reflection enhances our sense of being decentered animals with no clear grounding in the natural world, yet it also fosters the idea of human perfectibility as an aspirational goal. From the Enlightenment (Rousseau, Kant) to recent avatars of existentialism, modern views of human beings as free agents engaged in an open-ended project have cultivated a moral perspective while relinquishing any stable view of “human nature.” On the other hand, an enduring metaphysical tradition from Plato to Bergson has emphasized the need to embrace our human singularity and aspiration to transcendence within a broader view of nature consistent with scientific thought. Both perspectives must nonetheless confront a perennial question that lies at the core of the human condition: are we equipped to face our inevitable mortality? Steve Paulson, journalist and Executive Producer, TTBOOK, in conversation with Elie During, Professor of Philosophy, University of Paris, Nanterre. The Morgan Library & Museum April 10, 2025