scholarly journals 儒家生命倫理對基因改造的倫理辯護與批判

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Tao LIU
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Playing God ◽  
Digital Commons ◽  
Confucian Thought ◽  
Moral Relationship ◽  
Traditional Understanding

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文在考察西方學者對基因改造倫理爭議的基礎上，發掘儒家生命倫理對基因改造倫理所具有的辯護與批判功能。筆者認為，孔子提出的仁愛思想和孟子提出的不傷害原則，可以為基因治療進行倫理辯護。《周易》、《中庸》、《荀子》等儒家經典提出的天道觀及其對天人關係的闡釋，可以為體細胞基因增強提供倫理辯護。儘管如此，儒家生命倫理卻難以對生殖細胞基因增強進行倫理辯護，基因改造在現實推行過程中會產生一系列複雜的新問題。基因改造的問題需要運用儒家倫理對其進行反思和批判，在此基礎上找出合乎儒家倫理精神訴求的解決之道。Many people feel that genetic engineering, particularly genetic enhancement, has disrupted the traditional understanding of the distinction between choice and chance and its ethical implications. Scholars in the West have strongly objected to scientists’ “playing God” on the grounds that genetic engineering devalues human beings and contravenes intrinsic ethical principles. What is the traditional Confucian view of genetic engineering? The author contends that certain aspects of Confucian thought support the idea of genetic engineering. For instance, Confucian scholars do not define human nature (renxing) as fixed, let alone biologically fixed. The Confucian understanding of human nature as processual offers an ethical foundation for arguments in favor of genetic enhancement: specifically, there is no reason to believe that we as humans cannot or should not exceed the limitations imposed by our biological nature.Among the possible applications of genetic enhancement are the radical extension of the human health-span, the eradication of disease, the elimination of unnecessary suffering, and the augmentation of humans’ intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities. The author shows that although classical Confucianism does not directly address these modern scientific and technological issues, relevant arguments can be found within the Confucian tradition. For example, Xunzi’s account of humans’ “active relationship” (wei) with non-human nature suggests that conscious effort is required for human beings to build a moral relationship with the world. The author points out that the emphasis placed on “active participation” by Xunzi and other subsequent Confucians marks a departure from the Daoist commitment to passivity, as explicated by Zhuangzi. For Confucians, renxing is expressed through the human wei. It can thus be inferred that Confucianism does not reject the notion of genetic choice. However, the author also explains why Confucians may be cautious about or even critical of certain enhancement practices.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 737 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Genomics and Genetic Engineering

2013 ◽  
pp. 249-267
Author(s):  
Varghese M Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Technological Application ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Playing God ◽  
Advisory Commission ◽  
Genetic Technologies ◽  
Entire Cosmos

The hurricane growth of genomics and genetic engineering poses challenging ethical questions pertaining to the technological application in human life. Many secular and religious bioethicists observe that the new proposals of genetic engineering are described as “playing God.” The metaphor has evoked both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives among the scholars in bioethics. The American President’s Advisory Commission for Bioethics describes the ethical arguments in relation with this metaphor in many volumes. The negative renditions of “playing God” conclude that even though human beings are God’s creation they might still be able to play God, which could lead human beings and the entire cosmos to disaster. This perceptive proposes that modern genetic technologies and the researches in genomics could lead humanity into such a disaster. Contrary to this urging, some other bioethicists endorse that as an image of God, humans are called to play God. This chapter critically analyse the rationality of these arguments and its milieu in the context of Christian theology and verify its universal relevance in the context of bioethics.

Genomics and Genetic Engineering

2011 ◽  
pp. 111-129
Author(s):  
Varghese M Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Technological Application ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Playing God ◽  
Advisory Commission ◽  
Genetic Technologies ◽  
Entire Cosmos

The hurricane growth of genomics and genetic engineering poses challenging ethical questions pertaining to the technological application in human life. Many secular and religious bioethicists observe that the new proposals of genetic engineering are described as “playing God.” The metaphor has evoked both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives among the scholars in bioethics. The American President’s Advisory Commission for Bioethics describes the ethical arguments in relation with this metaphor in many volumes. The negative renditions of “playing God” conclude that even though human beings are God’s creation they might still be able to play God, which could lead human beings and the entire cosmos to disaster. This perceptive proposes that modern genetic technologies and the researches in genomics could lead humanity into such a disaster. Contrary to this urging, some other bioethicists endorse that as an image of God, humans are called to play God. This chapter critically analyse the rationality of these arguments and its milieu in the context of Christian theology and verify its universal relevance in the context of bioethics.

scholarly journals 儒化中醫哲學與當代基因改造人性道德爭論

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-179
Author(s):  
Ping Cheung LO
Keyword(s):  
High Technology ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Modern Time ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Digital Commons ◽  
Ming And Qing Dynasties ◽  
Philosophical Writings

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.當代世界其中一個重大道德爭議是，以基因科技改造人性應否進行。一些平常學術著作不討論這類問題的西方哲學家（如Habermas, Fukuyama, Sandel）也紛紛加入討論，可見這問題的劃時代重要性。本文希望透過整理及分析傳統中國思想來看這個道德爭議。直到今天，傳統中醫並不依賴高科技。其中一個原因是《黃帝內經》中的“人與天地相應”這基本看法。然而，醫治病人始終是一個人為行動，而非天地自然所為。如何在一個強調人配合天工的思維框架中為醫者的人工行為辯護，是明清時期不少醫學哲學所討論的議題。《黃帝內經》原與《周易》及《老子》皆有相通之處，到明清時期，由於儒醫的大量出現，及朱子理學的官學地位，很多儒化（理學化）的中醫哲學便冒現。透過“人補造化”、“人補天之缺陷”、“人補天功”、“人挽回天”等新瓶，承載《中庸》的人參贊天地化育的舊酒。本文會嘗試說明這個中醫哲學的天人觀，蘊涵支持基因科技的治療用途，但不蘊涵支持基因科技的優生用途。本文的用意並非要提供一個決定性或最終的論證，終極地反駁所有贊成基因改造人性的論證。本文所起的作用，只在提供一個非西方式的思考方法，以傳統儒化中醫哲學為資源，協助人類以多元文化角度思考當代重大道德爭議。Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), even in modern time, does not rely on high technology. This is partly due to TCM's worldview in which the oneness of human beings with nature is of paramount importance. But this non-reliance on high technology does not prevent TCM thinkers from recognizing that healing is still an artificial act. A philosophical justification for this artif iciality within the worldview of human-nature oneness is needed. Such philosophical justifications became more frequent in the Confucianized medicine manuals of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1644, 1644-1911 C.E.). This paper surveys and analyzes these seldom-discussed medical-philosophical writings and attempts to articulate a representative Confucian philosophical justif ication for“ human intervention into nature” in the practice of TCM. Both the necessity and the moral limits of this intervention will be noted. I shall then argue that such a worldview of“ limited human intervention into nature” is significantly different from that of the modern West since Francis Bacon, which informs some contemporary Western enthusiastic advocates of the genetic enhancement of human beings. This model will then serve illustrating an Asian way of thinking about science, technology, and values which is very different from a predominant Western paradigm.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 368 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Persons Together

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Market Relations ◽  
The Image Of God

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.

Wer täuscht wen?

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Daniel Strassberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The Self ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Narrative Context ◽  
Everyday Knowledge

The insight that human beings are prone to deceive themselves is part of our everyday knowledge of human nature. Even so, if deceiving someone means to deliberately misrepresent something to him, it is difficult to understand how it is possible to deceive yourself. This paper tries to address this difficulty by means of a narrative approach. Self-deception is conceived as a change of the narrative context by means of which the same fact appears in a different light. On these grounds, depending on whether the self-deceiver adopts an ironic attitude to his self-deception or not, it is also possible to distinguish between a morally inexcusable self-deception and a morally indifferent one.

On the Harm of Genocide

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-49
Author(s):  
Paul Kucharski
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Community Or ◽  
The World ◽  
Scholarly Discussion ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Individual Human ◽  
The Human Condition

My aim in this essay is to advance the state of scholarly discussion on the harms of genocide. The most obvious harms inflicted by every genocide are readily evident: the physical harm inflicted upon the victims of genocide and the moral harm that the perpetrators of genocide inflict upon themselves. Instead, I will focus on a kind of harm inflicted upon those who are neither victims nor perpetrators, on those who are outside observers, so to speak. My thesis will be that when a whole community or culture is eliminated, or even deeply wounded, the world loses an avenue for insight into the human condition. My argument is as follows. In order to understand human nature, and that which promotes its flourishing, we must certainly study individual human beings. But since human beings as rational and linguistic animals are in part constituted by the communities in which they live, the study of human nature should also involve the study of communities and cultures—both those that are well ordered and those that are not. No one community or culture has expressed all that can be said about the human way of existing and flourishing. And given that the unity and wholeness of human nature can only be glimpsed in a variety of communities and cultures, then part of the harm of genocide consists in the removal of a valuable avenue for human beings to better understand themselves.

Naturalism and Skepticism in the Philosophy of Hume

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Naturalistic Study ◽  
Human Beings

Hume takes his “naturalistic” study of human nature to show that certain general “principles of the imagination” can explain how human beings come to think, feel, believe, and act in all the ways they do independently of the truth or reasonableness of those responses. This appears to leave the reflective philosopher with no reason for assenting to what he has discovered he cannot help believing anyway. Relief from this unacceptably extreme skepticism is found in acknowledging and acquiescing in those forces of “nature” that inevitably overcome the apparent dictates of “reason” and return the philosopher to the responses and beliefs of everyday life. Living in full recognition of these forces and limitations is what Hume means by the “mitigated scepticism” he accepts.

Legalism and Humankind

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Frank I. Michelman
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
Human Good ◽  
Good For ◽  
Normative Argument

Prescriptive political and moral theories contain ideas about what human beings are like and about what, correspondingly, is good for them. Conceptions of human “nature” and corresponding human good enter into normative argument by way of support and justification. Of course, it is logically open for the ratiocinative traffic to run the other way. Strongly held convictions about the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, of certain social institutions or practices may help condition and shape one's responses to one or another set of propositions about what people are like and what, in consequence, they have reason to value.

scholarly journals VISÕES DE ALTERIDADE E EXPERIÊNCIA DOCENTE

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Rosângela Tenório de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings

Este artigo tem como objeto o discurso sobre alteridade em articulação com experiência docente. Pretende-se dar visibilidade à expressão material, conceitual e pedagógica desse discurso em suas relações. A reflexão está sustentada nos estudos pós-colonialistas e pós-estruturalistas. Problematiza-se a interpretação da alteridade como uma possibilidade de acessar a experiência do outro, sentir como o outro em sua essencia, pois entende-se que não há uma natureza humana, mas, sim, humanos produzidos culturalmente e linguisticamente. O enfoque recai sobre a alteridade como uma relação de interdependência permeada por relações de poder, a versão da afirmação da diferença e a dignidade nas relações. AbstractThis article has as its object the discourse on otherness in articulation with teaching experience. It is intended to give visibility to the material, conceptual and pedagogical expression of this discourse in their relations. The reflection is sustained in postcolonialist and poststructuralist studies. The interpretation of otherness as a possibility to access the experience of the other is problematized, to feel as the other in its essence, because is understood that there is no human nature, but human beings produced culturally and linguistically. He focus is on otherness as a relation of interdependence permeated by power relations, the version of affirmation of difference and dignity in relationships.KeywordsOtherness; Cultural difference; Teaching.

scholarly journals Why Catholic Theology Needs Metapshysics: A Christological Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-62
Author(s):  
Thomas Joseph White
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The One ◽  
Human Intellect ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Church

The Chalcedonian confession of faith asserts that Christ is one person, the Son of God, subsisting in two natures, divine and human. The doctrine of the communication of idioms is essential to the life and practices of the Church insofar as we affirm there to be properties of deity and humanity present in the one subject, the Word made flesh. Such affirmations are made without a confusion of the two natures or their mutually distinct attributes. The affirmation that there is a divine and human nature in Christ is possible, however, only if it is also possible for human beings to think coherently about the divine nature, analogically, and human nature, univocally. Otherwise it is not feasible to receive understanding of the divine nature of Christ into the human intellect intrinsically and the revelation must remain wholly alien to natural human thought, even under the presumption that such understanding originates in grace. Likewise we can only think coherently of the eternal Son’s solidarity with us in human nature if we can conceive of a common human nature present in all human individuals. Consequently, it is only possible for the Church to confess some form of Chalcedonian doctrine if there is also a perennial metaphysical philosophy capable of thinking coherently about the divine and human natures from within the ambit of natural human reason. This also implies that the Church maintains a “metaphysical apostolate” in her public teaching, in her philosophical traditions, as well as in her scriptural and doctrinal enunciations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document