Re-Enchanting the Human in an Era of Naturalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (7) ◽  
pp. 291-304
Author(s):  
Daekyung Jung
Keyword(s):  
Gene Editing ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Ethical Rationale ◽  
Aging Medical

Christians today are encountering new technologies such as gene editing via CRISPR-Cas9, designer babies, and anti-aging medical technology. These technical efforts are designed to enhance the physical properties of humans. Should we be vigilant about any aspects of these new technologies? Are we happy with these technologies? No, we are not happy about all of these developments. We need to critically examine some of the philosophical ideas embedded in the development and application of these technologies. This article aims to rebut the mechanical understanding of the human being that is implicitly embedded in the discourse on the technology. The author proposes naturalism as the cause of the emergence of the mechanical understanding of the human being, which has led to the reduction and negation of the nonphysical aspects of human existence. Due to the elimination of the universal and nonphysical reality of the meaning, value, and telos of human existence and the reduction of such realities to physical reality, what is valuable, meaningful, and good has become limited to that which is involved with something physical. In this way, technology has come to be very important, and the act of thinking has been reduced to the act of technical reasoning. Thus, the human being is construed as a purely physical, mathematical, and geometrical being—as a machine. In order to retrieve a holistic understanding of the human, therefore, it is necessary to reject the reduction of the nonphysical to the physical and thereby retrieve the inherent nonphysical aspects of the human being. This effort will help to re-enchant human beings and to provide theological and ethical rationale for preventing imprudent technological development and its application to humans.

Pedagogika wobec problematyczności bytu ludzkiego. O konfliktach w życiu człowieka

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2 (252)) ◽  
pp. 70-85
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Rumianowska
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Existential Philosophy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Complex Mechanisms

The purpose of the article is to outline the problem of widely understood conflicts in human life from the perspective of existential philosophy. Without questioning the importance of psychological research on complex mechanisms underlying conflicts, the author points to the issue of the problematic nature of human existence, the category of freedom, the problem of the authenticity of being and the sense of meaning. In the second part of the paper, the essence of educational process in the context of experiencing difficulties and conflicting situations by human beings has been introduced. The necessity of taking into account the problem of being oneself and constituting a human being in relation to himself, the world and others has been presented.

scholarly journals ISLAM DAN KONSERVASI SUMBER DAYA ALAM

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Eko Budi Minarno
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Conservation Of Natural Resources ◽  
The Creation

<p class="Bodytext5">Among the various crises, worrying enough is the start of the scarcity of some Natural Resources (SDA), especially from unrecoverable groups such as petroleum, metals and minerals. And by often ignoring the needs of other living beings as well as the needs of future generations. If then comes a crisis with respect to this SDA, which is affected negatively human finally. SDA is needed by humans in the past, present and future. The threat to the existence and sustainability of natural resources is just the same as the threat to human existence and survival. The conservation of natural resources, which is essentially the management of natural resources, is an absolute must and is the main responsibility of human being as the Caliph of this earth. There are three main tasks for human beings related to the conservation of natural resources including al Intifa '(nurture and utilize), al I'tibar (think, be grateful, explore the secrets of nature), and al Islah (preserve and deliberate sustainability for the benefit of people, and the creation of harmony of life nature of Allah's creation.</p><p> </p><p>Di antara berbagai krisis, yang cukup mengkhawatirkan adalah mulai terjadinya kelangkaan beberapa Sumber Daya Alam (SDA) terutama dari kelompok yang tidak terpulihkan seperti minyak bumi, logam, dan min­eral. Dan dengan sering mengabaikan kebutuhan makhluk hidup yang lain maupun kebutuhan generasi yang akan datang. Kalau kemudian muncul krisis sehubungan dengan SDA ini, yang terkena darnpak negatif akhirnya manusia juga. SDA sangat dibutuhkan oleh manusia dimasa lalu, sekarang dan yang akan datang. Ancaman terhadap keberadaan dan kelangsungan SDA sama saja artinya dengan ancaman terhadap keberadaan dan kelangsungan hidup manusia. Konservasi SDA yang berintikan pengelolaan SDA, adalah suatu hal yang mutlak harus dilaksanakan dan menjadi tanggung jawab utama manusia sebagai khalifah di bumi ini. Ada tiga tugas utama bagi manusia berkaitan dengan koservasi SDA meliputi al Intifa’ (memelihara dan mendayagunakan), al I’tibar (memikirkan, mensyukuri, menggali rahasia alam), dan al Islah (memelihara dan sengaja kelestarian untuk kemslahatan umat, serta terciptanya harmoni kehidupan alam ciptaan Allah SWT.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals HUMAN: BEING BETWEEN NATURE AND CULTURE

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
Alexey Volkov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Cultural Origins

The article investigates some issues connected with comprehending the specific features of human existence. The author uses genetic and cross-cultural studies to show that human development is affected by both genetic and sociocultural factors. The author believes that the conception of human existence that takes into account mutual influence and complementarity of genetic and cultural origins in human beings is justified not only in theory, but also in practice, since it responds to the need for harmonization of relations between people and their environment.

scholarly journals Conditio humana

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
István Dobos
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Conditio Humana

So far, this piece by Dezső Kosztolányi has not been analyzed from the aspect of biopoetics. The novel seeks to answer the query whether we are able to transcend the framework of interpreting ourselves that is traditionally available for us and move to the level of other relationships of existence (present in the vegetable or animal kingdoms, or in nature) in this effort. In Aranysárkány [verbatim: golden dragon], the eponymous creature is neither a human being, nor an animal, but a model of a mythological beast, which the characters seem to personify in various ways. Its role in the book is to gradually undermine the anthropological conviction that considers human beings to be the opposite of animals. according to this latter assumption, our absolute superiority in this respect is guaranteed by our intellect, willpower, morality, and the use of language. The novel suggests that the differences and discrepancies that separate us from animals and other natural creatures are much more complex and the essence of human existence cannot be defined or pinpointed through simple binary oppositions. it is the act of being addressed by the imaginary gaze of the golden dragon and the effort of embedding the interpretation of the experience of this encounter into the image perceptible about human nature that provide the perspectives and angles of comprehension which may justify the possibility of approaching Kosztolányi’s Aranysárkány from a bio-poetic aspect.

Dualism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Property Dualism ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Mental Properties ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mental Events

Dualism is the view that mental phenomena are, in some respect, nonphysical. The best-known version is due to Descartes (1641), and holds that the mind is a nonphysical substance. Descartes argued that, because minds have no spatial properties and physical reality is essentially extended in space, minds are wholly nonphysical. Every human being is accordingly a composite of two objects: a physical body, and a nonphysical object that is that human being’s mind. On a weaker version of dualism, which contemporary thinkers find more acceptable, human beings are physical substances but have mental properties, and those properties are not physical. This view is known as property dualism, or the dual-aspect theory. Several considerations appear to support dualism. Mental phenomena are strikingly different from all others, and the idea that they are nonphysical may explain just how they are distinctive. Moreover, physical reality conforms to laws formulated in strictly mathematical terms. But, because mental phenomena such as thinking, desiring and sensing seem intractable to being described in mathematical terms, it is tempting to conclude that these phenomena are not physical. In addition, many mental states are conscious states – states that we are aware of in a way that seems to be wholly unmediated. And many would argue that, whatever the nature of mental phenomena that are not conscious, consciousness cannot be physical. There are also, however, reasons to resist dualism. People, and other creatures with mental endowments, presumably exist wholly within the natural order, and it is generally held that all natural phenomena are built up from basic physical constituents. Dualism, however, represents the mind as uniquely standing outside this unified physical picture. There is also a difficulty about causal relations between mind and body. Mental events often cause bodily events, as when a desire causes an action, and bodily events often cause mental events, for example in perceiving. But the causal interactions into which physical events enter are governed by laws that connect physical events. So if the mental is not physical, it would be hard to understand how mental events can interact causally with bodily events. For these reasons and others, dualism is, despite various reasons advanced in its support, a theoretically uncomfortable position.

scholarly journals The Concept of Identity in the Technological Era

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Razec ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way ◽  
Effective History

We are currently witnessing a process of redefinition of the social structures that we are part of, through the new technologies, which are gradually entering all sectors of our lives, influencing the way we think, live, and relate to others. Since man is essentially a “political animal”, designed to evolve within a community, what impact will the digitalization era have on his behavior, especially when the physical limits imposed by the body are progressively disappearing? The objective of this study is to explore some of the subtle, but sure transformations of human behavior in the technological era, with a particular emphasis on the process of communication, personal feelings, and identity. In a more connected world than ever, where absolutely everything can be quantified, physical reality is in danger of being replaced by the virtual one. In this dynamic, the body could gradually become the only real impediment on the way to progress. Engaged in this alert race, we risk being dehumanized, in an attempt to be as similar as possible to the machines, which, undisturbed by the feelings, experiences, and behavioral predispositions specific to the human being, operate more accurately and are more effective. History shows that man essentially remains the same, with each age illustrating another facet of him. This is why, a thorough education from an early age is needed both in terms of the consequences of digitization and the means to cope with it, thus preventing us from distorting our essence.

scholarly journals UN VIAJE A TRAVÉS DEL WAṢL Y EL FAṢL. MUJER Y SEXUALIDAD EN EL PENSAMIENTO DE IBN ῾ARABĪ

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heba Youssry
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Presence ◽  
Ibn Arabi ◽  
Las Mujeres ◽  
Mode Of Being ◽  
Made In

Resumen: El ser humano está en continua búsqueda de un lugar y una orientación dentro de un mundo que, supuestamente, es su morada. Este ha sido designado por Dios como Su vicerregente (jalīfa), es decir, su representante en la Tierra. Este artículo aborda la concepción de la mujer y la realización del papel de vicerregente por medio de la participación en la relación sexual dentro del marco del matrimonio, como un modo particular de ser, y como actividad física y metafísica necesaria para la existencia humana que posibilita a los seres humanos alcanzar la proximidad con la Presencia Divina. Para ello, se investigará la discusión planteada por Ibn ῾Arabī en su Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam en la que se analiza el dicho profético “Se me han hecho amar tres cosas en este mundo: las mujeres, el perfume y la oración como solaz de los ojos". Abstract: The human being is in a constant struggle to find a place, an orientation for him/herself within a world that is supposedly an abode. He/she was assigned by God to be a vicegerent (khalīfa), a representative of Him on earth. This paper aims to tackle the conception of women and the fulfillment of the role of a vicegerent through human participation in sexual intercourse within the framework of marriage as a particular mode of being, and as recurring physical and metaphysical activity pertinent to human existence which could allow human beings to rise to the proximity of the Divine presence. This will be accomplished through investigating; Ibn ʿArabī’s discussion of those activities in his book Fuṣūṣ al-Ḫikam, where he analyzes the prophetic saying: “Three things were made beloved to me in this world of yours: women, perfume and the solace of my eye was made in prayer”.

scholarly journals Genoma humano: Implicações éticas

2001 ◽  
Vol 61 (243) ◽  
pp. 622
Author(s):  
Nilo Agostini
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Code ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Ethical Reflection ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Therapeutic Concept ◽  
Human Dna ◽  
The Face

Novas tecnologias estão mapeando o código genético, decifrando assim as informações contidas no DNA humano. A biomedicina vê-se, com isso, ante novos paradigmas, com a emergência de uma nova concepção terapéutica. Á bioética, por sua vez, tem um lugar de destaque, neste vasto campo, ao acionar a reflexão ética a respeito da vida; chega a definir delimitações protetoras, buscando poteger o ser humano de desvios diversos e mesmo ameaçadores; aponta para a necessidade imperiosa de servir ao bem-estar da humanidade. Á contribuição cristã parte do valor incomparável da vida humana para acolher os beneficios trazidos e evitar extrapolações no uso das biotecnologias. O elemento norteador é sempre a busca do bem integral do ser humano.Abstract: New technologies are mapping the genetic code and thus deciphering the information contained in the human DNA. With the emergence of a new therapeutic concept, biomedicine finds itself in the face of new paradigms. Bioethics, in its turn, is given a prominent role in this vast field, as it sets in motion the ethical reflection about life; defines protective limits that seek to guard human beings against difrent — and even threatening — detours; and it points to die fundamental need to act in the service of the welfare of Mankind. The Christian contribution bases itself on the incomparable value of human life to welcome the benefits of the new biotechnologies but also to prevent extrapolations in their application. Here, our North is, always, the good of the whole human being.

scholarly journals Somatic Transformations in the Context of Antropotechnogynesis at the Modern Stage

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
І. Р Pecheranskyi
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Functional Connection ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of

Purpose. The main purpose of the article is the analysis of the phenomenon and manifestations of the somatic transformations in the context of anthropo-technological evolution at the beginning of the XXI century. Theoretical basis. The author determines the understanding of the concept "somatic transformations" in the frames of anthropotechnogynesis is possible only on the base of integrative approach and combination of post-non-classical scientific paradigm methodology, theory of the technological development, ideas of trans-humanism, informative society concepts, and net technologies influence on the identity of the human being with robots in the sphere of bioethics and nanoethics, the ethics of new technologies and legal documents which are regulating the processes of technotransformation of the human being. Originality. The author has proved on the example of analysis of the somatic transformations own psychosomatics as he solves some important global in the context of anthropotechnogynesis that a person with help of technological enlargement of and branch problems, so he is trapped of alienation in the very crucial stage, loses the identity and crashes the corporeality in his self. Conclusions. As evidenced by the given analysis, at the modern stage the anthropotechnogynesis is followed by the large-scale quantitative and qualitative somatic transformations based on NBIC-convergence, as a result, a new anthropological subspecies – Homo technologicus appears. All these transformations are a regular stage of evolution, which confirms the thesis of the essential and functional connection of technology with the human body, which are in a relationship of "mutual provocation". In the base of the paradigmatic ontological and anthropological shift which has been on the modern stage, lies the idea of continuity of anthropotechnological co-evolution of the human body and its environment which projects itself in psychosomatic human structure, making a transformation program for better adaptation in technonanobeing. The convergence of human life and techno-existence is a platform for somatic transformations. They are divided into two main groups: intra-structural, substantial, related to techno-modification of the human body directly through biotechnology and genetic engineering, cyborgization, xenotransplantation, Hi-Hume connection with Hi-Tech and others, and external-contextual, when under the influence of pancommunication and hybridization the environment is increasingly mentalized and somatized, and modern technologies are gradually transformed into the social body of man.

scholarly journals The crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence as a global problem of post-modernityand the ways of managerial solutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SPE1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitalina A. Nikitenko ◽  
Valentyna H. Voronkova ◽  
Regina Andriukaitiene ◽  
Roman I. Oleksenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Global Problem ◽  
The World

The relevance of the study of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence is due to the fact that humanity is in a crisis of global development of the world associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0, the technological development of the world, the demographic and environmental crisis, the epidemic of the coronavirus COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize the socio-philosophical reflection of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence, which is a global problem of our time, which threatens our civilization, is associated with economic and social development, with many problems, including the problem of COVID-19. The objectives of the research are to identify the problems of the metaphysical dimensions of human existence and find ways that promise to lead to great achievements - to raise living standards, create new economic opportunities, solve anthropological, existential and ontological problems of human being associated with the real de-objectification of human existence, loss of the integrity of self-determination.The scientific novelty of the research is that it presents a solution to new problems of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence and ways to solve them.

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