who are we really?

Dystopic vs. Liberal?

• Two version of modern liberal humanism and its ontological dualism
• perpetuating human normativity
• human nature as fixed, stable and “given” substance

human enhancement

Social and Technical Arguments

• aggravate existing disadvantages into biological ones
• Enhancements are perceived as “a bit for compliance ...thwart people’s impulse to resist unjust, unrealistic or exploitative expectations and demands, and prevent wider social reforms

Social and Technical Arguments

• Steven Pinker
• There will be no directive to evolve people towards a single optimal type. Rather, access to information about the full range of genetic therapies will allow the value of prospective parents to inform their eugenic plans. Differing ideas about the good life will surely disrupt any centrally directed pattern of enhancement - John Harris

human nature

human nature

• some fixed essence shared by (and only by) all human - FF
• imperfection is a constitutive aspect of human existence - Michael Sandel
• the wisdom of repugnance- Leon Kass

human nature

• “Conspicuous inconsistency between the project of human enhancement and the project of modernity”
• Habermas
• Bostrom and Sandberg
• Evolution

human nature

• human species is constantly changing and improvable
• its very existence implies affecting its surrounding and itself in unpredicted ways
• aspirations to self-improvement is an integral part to this dynamic
• It's just as normative as it attacks

who are we really?