Zodiaco (o bestiario?) del Terzo millennio. Crepuscolo del moderno – aurora del neoterico

Abstract

Image of the human – so as defined by Humanism – is been represented in several ways during all the course of Modernity. Those representations relate to evolving vision, both exterior and interior, of human, previously inspired to Marco Vitruvio Pollione, then passing by the works by Leonardo da Vinci, Diego Velazquez, at last by the XX century arts and media, reaching a threshold that – temporarily – we name “posthuman”. The current trend gives a largely progressive connotation to idea of posthuman. I think, instead, that posthuman may be the extreme reinforcement of that the same humanistic ethics considers as the worse elements of humanistic individualization, like egotism and self-referentiality, that are related to a “centripetal” self, a sort of “black hole” that swallows and annihilates any form of empathy, solidarity, sympathy. I think we are in front of a new historic phase, the age – with a neologism – of Neoteric : the historic phase of the absolute exasperation of individualism.