cover image: The Enlightenment Cyborg : A History of Communications and Control in the Human Machine, 1660-1830

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The Enlightenment Cyborg : A History of Communications and Control in the Human Machine, 1660-1830

1 Jan 2007

For many cultural theorists, the concept of the cyborg - an organism controlled by mechanic processes - is firmly rooted in the post-modern, post-industrial, post-Enlightenment, post-nature, post-gender, or post-human culture of the late twentieth century. Allison Muri argues, however, that there is a long and rich tradition of art and philosophy that explores the equivalence of human and machine, and that the cybernetic organism as both a literary figure and an anatomical model has, in fact, existed since the Enlightenment.

In The Enlightenment Cyborg, Muri presents cultural evidence - in literary, philosophical, scientific, and medical texts - for the existence of mechanically steered, or 'cyber' humans in the works seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thinkers. Muri illustrates how Enlightenment exploration of the notion of the 'man-machine' was inextricably tied to ideas of reproduction, government, individual autonomy, and the soul, demonstrating an early connection between scientific theory and social and political thought. She argues that late twentieth-century social and political movements, such as socialism, feminism, and even conservatism, are thus not unique in their use of the cyborg as a politicized trope.

The Enlightenment Cyborg establishes a dialogue between eighteenth-century studies and cyborg art and theory, and makes a significant and original contribution to both of these fields of inquiry.

history cyborgs human-machine systems

Authors

Allison Muri

Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-293) and index
Control Number Identifier
CaOOCEL
Dewey Decimal Classification Number
303.48/3
Dewey Decimal Edition Number
22
General Note
Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
ISBN
9780802088505 9781442684904
LCCN
TA167
LCCN Item number
M86 2007eb
Modifying agency
CaBNVSL
Original cataloging agency
NLC
Physical Description | Extent
1 electronic text (viii, 308 p., [40] p. of plates)
Published in
Canada
Publisher or Distributor Number
CaOOCEL
Rights
Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
System Control Number
(CaBNVSL)thg00601014 (OCoLC)752443020 (CaOOCEL)418924
System Details Note
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Transcribing agency
NLC

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