Page - 19 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

The Pedigree of Dualistic and Non-Dualistic Media | 19www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 15–22 philosophers and Cicero did not develop an egalitarian society in the modern sense, but this changed evaluation of human beings did have practical implications for the treatment of slaves in their own society. The third central step in dualistic thinking took place with Descartes. Where ancient thinkers within the Platonic tradition had acknowledged that there are a variety of dif- ferent souls, Descartes put dualism on an even more solid footing by distinguishing between res extensa and res cogitans, with only human beings participating in both. Animals and all other solely natural objects belong only to the realm of res extensa. Such thinking was developed further within Kantianism, in which the same on- tological distinction as in Descartes’ philosophy can be found. Kant focussed more, however, on the ethical relevance and implications and developed a complex ethics and political philosophy that is still the core of German Basic Law. As a result, it is legally forbidden to treat another person as solely a means, which presupposes a radi- cally dualistic distinction between objects and subjects. Furthermore, this influence is the reason for German Basic Law’s claim that only human beings possess dignity and that animals and all other solely natural entities are to be treated as things. This separation also presupposes the highly problematic categorically dualistic ontological separation we found in Descartes’ philosophy. After Kant, Nietzsche moved beyond the dualistic history of Western philosophy. All the consequences of his approach have not yet been grasped by many scholars, thinkers, and philosophers today, but together with Nietzsche, Wagner, Darwin, and Jung initiated the cultural move towards a non-dualistic way of thinking. Consequent- ly, it is possible to assert that with these cultural movements humanism has come or is coming to an end. Here I take humanism as a worldview founded upon the affirmation of categorical dualities. In light of the plausibility of these reflections on the develop- ment of dualistic thinking, I can stress that the development of Plato’s philosophy has most probably been the corner stone of Western culture as a dualistic culture. Peter Sloterdijk, who identifies the beginnings of humanism with the age of Stoic philosophy, and Ihab Hassan, who stresses the close connections of the beginnings of the Enlightenment with the beginnings of humanism, are surely right in claiming that strong versions of dualisms can be found in the philosophies of the Stoics and of Descartes,8 but we should not overlook the central importance of Plato’s philosophy for this development. Given that there are cultural movements beyond dualities, it seems appropriate to stress that we are moving beyond humanism into a posthuman age. We have also been able to recognise that an important dualistic media had been created about one hundred years before the dualistic way of thinking was developed in the field of philo- sophical reflection. Given that dualism had come in the media before it emerged in philosophy, we can speculate that the media artists ought to have been first to rec- 8 See Sloterdijk 2009 and Hassan 1977.