scholarly journals Pessimism Counts in Favor of Biomedical Enhancement: A Lesson from the Anti-Natalist Philosophy of P. W. Zapffe

Neuroethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Martin Moen
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Arthur Schopenhauer ◽  
Biomedical Enhancement

AbstractAccording to the Norwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990), human life is filled with so much suffering that procreation is morally impermissible. In the first part of this paper I present Zapffe’s pessimism-based argument for anti-natalism, and contrast it with the arguments for anti-natalism proposed by Arthur Schopenhauer and David Benatar. In the second part I explore what Zapffe’s pessimism can teach us about biomedical enhancement. I make the (perhaps surprising) case that pessimism counts in favor of pursuing biomedical enhancements. The reason is that the worse we take the baseline human condition to be, the stronger are our reasons to try to alter humanity, and the weaker are our reasons to fear technology-driven extinction. The prospect of enhancement, I further argue, gives pessimists a reason to reject anti-natalism.

INEVITABILITY OF REVIVAL: PRO AND COUNTER ANTINATALISM

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Nikolay S. Savkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Arthur Schopenhauer ◽  
Expected Effect ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Active Subject ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Natural Way

Introduction. Radical pessimism and militant anti-natalism of Arthur Schopenhauer and David Benathar create an optimistic philosophy of life, according to which life is not meaningless. It is given by nature in a natural way, and a person lives, studies, works, makes a career, achieves results, grows, develops. Being an active subject of his own social relations, a person does not refuse to continue the race, no matter what difficulties, misfortunes and sufferings would be experienced. Benathar convinces that all life is continuous suffering, and existence is constant dying. Therefore, it is better not to be born. Materials and Methods. As the main theoretical and methodological direction of research, the dialectical materialist and integrative approaches are used, the realization of which, in conjunction with the synergetic technique, provides a certain result: is convinced that the idea of anti-natalism is inadequate, the idea of giving up life. A systematic approach and a comprehensive assessment of the studied processes provide for the disclosure of the contradictory nature of anti-natalism. Results of the study are presented in the form of conclusions that human life is naturally given by nature itself. Instincts, needs, interests embodied in a person, stimulate to active actions, and he lives. But even if we finish off with all of humanity by agreement, then over time, according to the laws of nature and according to evolutionary theory, man will inevitably, objectively, and naturally reappear. Discussion and Conclusion. The expected effect of the idea of inevitability of rebirth can be the formation of an optimistic orientation of a significant part of the youth, the idea of continuing life and building happiness, development. As a social being, man is universal, and the awareness of this universality allows one to understand one’s purpose – continuous versatile development.

Ważyk metafizyczny? / Ważyk – A Metaphysician?

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Jerzy Święch
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Self Sufficiency

Summary Adam Ważyk’s last volume of poems Zdarzenia (Events) (1977) can be read as a resume of the an avant-garde artist’s life that culminated in the discovery of a new truth about the human condition. The poems reveal his longing for a belief that human life, the mystery of life and death, makes sense, ie. that one’s existence is subject to the rule of some overarching necessity, opened onto the last things, rather than a plaything of chance. That entails a rejection of the idea of man’s self-sufficiency as an illusion, even though that kind of individual sovereignty was the cornerstone of modernist art. The art of late modernity, it may be noted, was already increasingly aware of the dangers of putting man’s ‘ontological security’ at risk. Ważyk’s last volume exemplifies this tendency although its poems appear to remain within the confines of a Cubist poetics which he himself helped to establish. In fact, however, as our readings of the key poems from Events make clear, he employs his accustomed techniques for a new purpose. The shift of perspective can be described as ‘metaphysical’, not in any strict sense of the word, but rather as a shorthand indicator of the general mood of these poems, filled with events which seem to trap the characters into a supernatural order of things. The author sees that much, even though he does not look with the eye of a man of faith. It may be just a game - and Ważyk was always fond of playing games - but in this one the stakes are higher than ever. Ultimately, this game is about salvation. Ważyk is drawn into it by a longing for the wholeness of things and a dissatisfaction with all forms of mediation, including the Cubist games of deformation and fragmentation of the object. It seems that the key to Ważyk’s late phase is to be found in his disillusionment with the twentieth-century avant-gardes. Especially the poems of Events contain enough clues to suggest that the promise of Cubism and surrealism - which he sought to fuse in his poetic theory and practice - was short-lived and hollow.

Life and Death

2016 ◽  
pp. 422-442
Author(s):  
Jana Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Artificial Reproduction ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
The Creation

This chapter places Catholic teaching on questions of life and death against the background of a Catholic vision of salvation history, emphasizing that Catholics see no necessary opposition between Christian faith and progress in scientific understanding of the creation. The chapter then considers questions concerning abortion, contraception, and techniques for artificial reproduction. The second half of the chapter focuses on questions concerning death. Catholic teaching views human life in this world as finite, and thus sees death as intrinsic to the current human condition. After considering Catholic teaching on euthanasia, the chapter considers Catholic discussion of war, the death penalty, and care for the environment.

Prologue

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Self ◽  
Objective Truth ◽  
The World ◽  
Subjective Truth ◽  
The Human Condition

Introduces some of the central ideas of existentialism—including subjective truth, finitude, being-in-the-world, facticity, transcendence, inwardness, and the self as becoming—as relevant to an individual living in the contemporary moment. Highlights existentialist concern both for human individuality and for commonly-shared features of the human condition. Emphasizes existentialist attention both to the despairing aspects of human life and to the affirmation of existence as worthy of wonder. Introduces a few key thinkers—Kierkegaard, Marcel, Heidegger, Sartre, Nietzsche—while also indicating the diversity of existentialism to be emphasized throughout the book. Addresses what existentialism may have to offer in the context of contemporary challenges to objective truth and communal forms of meaning.

Robots and the Future of Retribution

2021 ◽  
pp. 93-101
Author(s):  
John Danaher
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Traditional Practices ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter studies the future of retribution and, in particular, the role that robots will play in shaping that future. It begins by describing the Bouphonia ritual, which speaks to two important features of the human condition: the enduring significance of practices of blame and punishment in human life, and the occasional absurdity of this desire. What happens when robots — or other sophisticated artificially intelligent (AI) machines — get embedded in our societies and have a part to play in criminal acts? Should they, like the knife in the Bouphonia ritual, be blamed for their contribution? Or should something else happen, something a little more radical? The chapter makes the case for radicalism. In particular, it suggests that the rise of the robots should lead us to reconsider the wisdom of our traditional practices of punishment and blame.

Human Life as a State of Mediocrity in John Locke

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Giuliana Di Biase
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Perfect Knowledge ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Church

This chapter investigates the genesis and evolution of Locke’s idea of human life as a “state of mediocrity”. While this idea had ancient roots going back to the early Church fathers, it remained current in the seventeenth century where mediocrity was generally equated with a condition of partial ignorance and imperfection. Locke’s account of it is original; while life is a time of mediocrity, death opens the way to the extremes of eternal misery or eternal happiness. Initially, inspired by the Church fathers, Locke conceived of human life as a condition of intellectual mediocrity. Subsequently, and arguably prompted by his reading of the pessimistic outlooks of Nicole and Pascal, he redefined the state of mediocrity in more optimistic terms: humans are naturally suited to their mediocre state. A further development of his conception of mediocrity, again involving a partial rethinking of the human condition, can be found in the Essay, where Locke represents mediocrity as an imperfect state of insatiable desire. It is redeemed, however, by the ability of living human beings to attain perfect knowledge of morality.

An Americanist's Take on Against the Grain

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-699
Author(s):  
Terence N. D'Altroy
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Human History ◽  
Formal Institutions ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
The Human Condition

In both public and professional accounts of the grand sweep of human history, a few questions recurrently beg for attention. How did technology—broadly understood to encompass everything from control of fire to domestication of food sources, to craft manufacture, to communication and transportation—transform human life? How did social complexity come into being: e.g. classes, formal institutions and the state? Why did some ancient societies invest so much effort in corporate constructions such as pyramids, temples and other monumental architecture? What were the effects of warfare and disease on the human condition? And why did the early societies of so many regions cycle between eras of concentrated power and its apparent dissolution?

scholarly journals Self-transcendence and Eros: The human condition between desire and the infinite

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornel W. Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Martin Buber ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Inner World ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
The Impact

This article treats self-transcendence – like all transcendence – as a fact of human life. Inter alia this means that the human mind perforce operates in terms of binary concepts such as finitude–infinity, inner world–outside world, self–other, desire–fulfilment, separation–union and the like. We find these concepts in most myths of origin. The concept of desire (Eros), combining unfulfilment and the infinite, particularly epitomises self-transcendence. Ralph Waldo Emerson is cited as a precursor of the mid-19th century transcendentalists, whose ideas are resurfacing in present-day secular spirituality. In this article, we examined desire in the Christian conception of the Fall as envisioned by the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and by Hegel, who integrates mind and nature in his philosophy of Spirit. The works of Emmanuel Levinas and Paul Ricoeur are used as points of reference to help us understand self and other in a framework of self-transcendence. The impact of these ideas on a postmetaphysical epistemology was also explored. Affectivity is a neglected area in Western thought and displays the same infinitude as rationality. The article concluded with present-day strategies of self-construction in a techno-scientific consumer culture.

scholarly journals The Faces of Human Vulnerability

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-229
Author(s):  
Rarita Mihail
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
Human Vulnerability ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Full Responsibility ◽  
Religious Systems

The philosophic notion of human vulnerability cannot be pinpointed as such in the corpus of classic philosophy. Nevertheless, death and suffering as essential philosophical and theological problems make reference to the dimension of vulnerability inherent to the human condition. Since times immemorial, the fear of death, the avoidance of suffering, or the crisis situations of human existence have laid at the basis of philosophical and religious systems. According to Freud, in the futile pursuit of happiness humans often face misery, which stems from a suffering that threatens them from three different directions: their own body, the outside world, and the relationships with other people. Starting from this angle, the present article furthers the notion of vulnerability by identifying its archetypal themes in relation to human life and its conditions of existence. Two main concepts will guide this study of human vulnerability: a vulnerability inherent to human subjectivity, and one consubstantial to the process of human socialisation. For Levinas, vulnerability has become alike an obsession for others, a full responsibility, which leads to the following formula: it is only a vulnerable person who can love one’s neighbour. In accordance with Habermas, the manner in which a human being leaves natural law and accesses social justice is here re-examined, as it stands for a vulnerability structurally determined by the forms of socio-cultural life.

scholarly journals ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT INTERNET OF THINGS AND THE DYNAMICS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT IN DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
Yuliia Pyrih ◽  
Mykola Kaidan ◽  
Olena Hordiichuk-Bublivska
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Qualitative Change ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Intelligent Transport System ◽  
And Storage ◽  
The Internet Of Things

The paper considers the concept of "Internet of Things", which is increasingly penetrating into various spheres of human life and contributes to a significant qualitative change in economic, operational and technological processes. The stages of functioning of the Internet of Things and the levels of its architecture are considered. Based on an analysis of a number of literature sources, the IoT has the greatest impact on six industries such as electricity and housing, health, agriculture and livestock, freight transportation and storage, smart city and construction, and manufacturing. A description of the main types of services for each of these industries and the role of the Internet of Things for its development. It is determined that the application of IoT solutions: in energy - allows to reduce the cost of infrastructure operation, prevent serious accidents and increase the efficiency of asset use; in healthcare - provides real-time streaming of data from devices that monitor the human condition, which allows for accurate diagnosis, increase the accuracy of results and optimize the provision of medical care; in agriculture and livestock - allows to significantly increase the efficiency of cultivation and reduce losses of agricultural products by raising awareness in decision-making and the ability to respond quickly to changes in weather, prices, market situation, etc .; for transportation and storage of goods - allows to provide smooth movement of operations and reduction of underutilization of resources for profit maximization; for "smart city" and construction - allows you to fundamentally improve the city's economy, improve living standards and public safety through more efficient management of housing and communal services, transport and services for the population; for industrial production - allows you to optimize production processes, modify business models, as well as increase productivity and efficiency, while reducing costs. The scheme of intelligent transport system for the city of Kyiv is presented.

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