In Search of the Human: Exploring Philosophical/Theological Anthropology with the help of Arrival, Blade Runner and Dune

The proposed presentation uses three works of science fiction to explore significant characteristics and demands of being human today: self-transcendence is analyzed with the help of Arrival, the importance of simulation and artificiality through Blade Runner, and the temptation to exercise prophetic authority at the expense of others with Dune. These works compel readers/viewers to nurture understandings of religion and the supernatural transcending superstition, notions of the human and education overcoming unilateral rational control of the body, in favor of embracing the inherent indeterminacy of natural and human evolution and history. Human finitude can indeed be conceived and embraced as responsible openness to the transcendent welcoming the other/Other in its/her difference, enabling the formation of authentic community and communion.