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Modern molecular technology in the so-called life sciences (biology as weil as medicine) allows today to approach and manipulate living beings in ways and to an extent wh ich not too long aga seemed Utopian. The empirical progress promises further and even more radical developments in the future, and it is at least often claimed that this kind of research will have tremendeous etfects on and for all of humanity, for example in the areas of food production, transplantation medicine (including stem cell research and xenotransplantation), (therapeutic) genetic manipulation and (cell-line) cloning (of cell lines or tissues), and of biodiversity conservation-strategies. At least in Western, industrialized countries the development of modern sciences led to a steady increase of human health, well-being and quality of life. However, with the move to make the human body itself an object of scientific research interests, the respective scientific descriptions resulted in changes in the image that human beings have of themselves. Scientific progress has led to a startling loss of traditional human self-understanding. This development is in contrast to an under standing according to which the question what it means to be "human" is treated in the realm of philosophy. And indeed, a closer look reveals that - without denying the value of scientitic progress - science cannot replace the philosophical approach to anthropological questions.
List of contents
I The Nature of Human Nature: Ethical and General Issues.- On Human Nature.- Personalistic Organicism and the Human Social Animal.- Genetics, Embodiment and Identity.- II Biology in Discourse: Biotheoretical Considerations on Human Nature.- The Biological Fundamentals of Human Cultural Developments and their Unique Functional Integration.- Three Seconds: A Temporal Platform for Conscious Activities.- Gestalt Recognition and Internal Representation - A Report from the Philosophical Laboratory.- Between Natural Disposition and Cultural Masterment of Life - The Cognitive Sciences and Concept of Man in Conflicting Conceptions of Scienes.- Genotype and Phenotype: Genetic and Epigenetic Aspects.- Genetic Determinism: The Battle between Scientific Data and Social Image in Contemporary Developmental Biology.- Can we find Human Nature in the Human Genome?.- The Nurturing of Natures.- III The Other Side of the Mirror: Methodological Reconsideration of Human Nature.- The Burdon of Proof - On the Impossibility of Technology Assessment for the Human Genome Project.- Philosophy and the Concept of Technology - On the Anthropological Significance of Technology.- Human Cultures' Natures - Critical Considerations and Some Perspectives of Culturalist Anthropology.
About the author
Armin Grunwald ist Leiter des Instituts für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse (ITAS) am Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe und Professor an der Universität Freiburg.
Summary
Modern molecular technology in the so-called life sciences (biology as weil as medicine) allows today to approach and manipulate living beings in ways and to an extent wh ich not too long aga seemed Utopian. The empirical progress promises further and even more radical developments in the future, and it is at least often claimed that this kind of research will have tremendeous etfects on and for all of humanity, for example in the areas of food production, transplantation medicine (including stem cell research and xenotransplantation), (therapeutic) genetic manipulation and (cell-line) cloning (of cell lines or tissues), and of biodiversity conservation-strategies. At least in Western, industrialized countries the development of modern sciences led to a steady increase of human health, well-being and quality of life. However, with the move to make the human body itself an object of scientific research interests, the respective scientific descriptions resulted in changes in the image that human beings have of themselves. Scientific progress has led to a startling loss of traditional human self-understanding. This development is in contrast to an under standing according to which the question what it means to be "human" is treated in the realm of philosophy. And indeed, a closer look reveals that - without denying the value of scientitic progress - science cannot replace the philosophical approach to anthropological questions.
