did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9780745629865

The Future of Human Nature

by ;
  • ISBN13:

    9780745629865

  • ISBN10:

    0745629865

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2003-04-01
  • Publisher: Polity
  • View Upgraded Edition
  • Purchase Benefits
  • Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
    Your order must be $35 or more to qualify for free economy shipping. Bulk sales, PO's, Marketplace items, eBooks and apparel do not qualify for this offer.
  • eCampus.com Logo Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
List Price: $49.95

Summary

Recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research are raising complex ethical questions concerning the legitimate scope and limits of genetic intervention. As we begin to contemplate the possibility of intervening in the human genome to prevent diseases, we cannot help but feel that the human species might soon be able to take its biological evolution in its own hands. 'Playing God' is the metaphor commonly used for this self-transformation of the species, which, it seems, might soon be within our grasp. In this important new book, Jurgen Habermas - the most influential philosopher and social thinker in Germany today - takes up the question of genetic engineering and its ethical implications and subjects it to careful philosophical scrutiny. His analysis is guided by the view that genetic manipulation is bound up with the identity and self-understanding of the species. We cannot rule out the possibility that knowledge of one's own hereditary factors may prove to be restrictive for the choice of an individual's way of life and may undermine the symmetrical relations between free and equal human beings. In the concluding chapter - which was delivered as a lecture on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for 2001 - Habermas broadens the discussion to examine the tension between science and religion in the modern world, a tension which exploded, with such tragic violence, on September 11th.

Author Biography

Jurgen Habermas is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. He was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels 2001.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note vi
Foreword vii
Are There Postmetaphysical Answers to the Question: What is the ``Good Life''?
1(15)
The Debate on the Ethical Self-Understanding of the Species
16(59)
Moralizing human nature?
23(6)
Human dignity versus the dignity of human life
29(8)
The embedding of morality in an ethics of the species
37(7)
The grown and the made
44(9)
Natality, the capacity of being oneself, and the ban on instrumentalization
53(7)
The moral limits of eugenics
60(6)
Setting the pace for a self-instrumentalization of the species?
66(9)
Postscript 75(26)
Faith and Knowledge 101(15)
Notes 116

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program