This thesis argues for the integration of a human subjective dimension within posthuman theory and philosophy, particularly in conjunction with educational theory and practice. The thesis consists of three articles, each centered around a principal concept relevant to the overarching inquiry: the significance of subjectivity, thinking, and origin stories. In the first article, I examine the notion of subjectivity and its transformation within the framework of posthumanism, proposing that an expanded conception is necessary - one in which the thinking subject incorporates the "materiality" emphasized by posthumanist perspectives. Drawing on the scholarship of Katherine Hayles, I demonstrate that while cognitive capacities depend on foundational mechanisms, the interplay between these mechanisms and subjective experience necessitates an exploration of distinct levels of abstraction and agency. While this aligns with key objectives of posthumanism, I contend that the interplay needs to be further concretized to be both philosophically and educationally relevant. The second article centers around the concept of thinking as meditated on by philosophers Hannah Arendt and Gilles Deleuze. Their understanding of thinking bears many similarities as well as differences, and the tension between these is from where I construct a broad definition of thinking that entails imagination, meaning-making, judgment, common sense, abstraction of patterns, and action. Thinking thus becomes a multilayered dimension in which different components can be activated at different times, sometimes overlapping and sometimes not. The definition of thinking that I construct based on the joint reading of Arendt and Deleuze is a continuation of my understanding of a vibrant posthuman subject that interacts as much with itself as with the surrounding world. While posthumanism focuses mostly on the importance of a subject-independent world, I argue that the active subject, as worldly, is the locus for educational change. In the third article, I consult the philosophy of Sylvia Wynter and center the discussion around my key concept of origin stories. Stories about ourselves and our communities, rooted in perceived origins, are shaped by both our biological and social development. Analytically separating these aspects allows me to highlight their interplay, which I propose is where opportunities lie to challenge our innate tendencies toward hierarchical categorization. Together, the three articles flesh out a philosophical-educational approach equipped to take on problems with in-built hierarchical taxonomies regarding people, nature, and technology. I demonstrate how the approach can be utilized by the examples of AI, data-driven methods in education, critical thinking and cultivation of judgment, and biological-racist views drawn from presumed origins. 

In this article, Ingrid Andersson discusses the decolonial philosophy of Sylvia Wynter, with a special focus on addressing her concepts of the hybrid human and origin stories. Andersson shows how Wynter's philosophizing about the being of being human is premised on an entanglement of nature and culture that is on par with the posthuman understanding of the ontological inseparability of matter and discourse. She goes on to interrogate some productive tensions between Wynter's decolonial philosophy and posthumanism by pointing out how Wynter's hybrid human formulates an understanding of human nature that is different in itself and not solely in relation to other nonhuman entities. In the final part of the article, she proposes how we, with Wynter, can devise a pedagogical approach that seeks to counteract harmful taxonomizing practices.

This article investigates the relationship between common sense, thinking, and the event through engaging with the philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Gilles Deleuze: two prominent philosophers of our Western tradition that have problematized the notions of common sense and thinking from similar yet different angles. This article shows that Arendt espouses a two-fold understanding of common sense whilst Deleuze defines common sense as recognition. An exploration of joining the two understandings is undertaken and points towards a conception of thinking that stays close to the event. 

The aim of this paper is to sketch a conception of a posthuman subject in which we can recognize a cognitive dimension. Through Hayles’s widened notion of cognition, I argue that we can retain the interpreting subject within posthumanism and thereby view it as entrenched in the surrounding world. Nonconscious- and conscious cognition, which are the terms that Hayles utilizes, shows how both non-human cognizing systems and the human subject widens while remaining level specific. The text concludes with a discussion of how my alternative has implications for methods of inquiry.