In Saecula Saeculorum Transhumanist Philosophy,Biogerontology,and the Roman Catholic Magisterium on the Ethics of Radical Life Extension.

详细信息   

• 作者：Labrecque ; Cory Andrew.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2011
• 毕业院校：McGill University
• ISBN：9780494745434
• CBH：NR74543
• Country：Canada
• 语种：English
• FileSize：1455609
• Pages：277

文摘

The roots of the human desire for agelessness and the want to surpass the limitations of the human condition go deep into the reaches of history. The religious disposition for immortality is ancient. However, the concept of transcending human nature and ushering in a new kind of earthly existence is largely attributed to prominent evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley, who coined the term "transhumanism" in his 1957 publication Knowledge, Morality, and Destiny. Contemporary transhumanism, which is both a philosophy and a movement, criticizes our apathy in having relinquished human evolutionary development to Nature； instead, it looks to assume proper control over our re)design, through the responsible use of science and technology, in order to offset the shortcomings that are regrettable characteristics of our current human state. The inevitability of ageing and death, inadequate and fluctuating intellectual capacity, corporeal unreliability, and emotional fragility are but a sample of those features of the human condition which, according to transhumanists, encumber our flourishing, suspend us in stasis, and, therefore, necessitate biotechnological intervention. This dissertation engages transhumanism, biogerontology, and the Roman Catholic Magisterium on the matter of radical life extension RLE). No longer within the realm of simple speculation, the idea of increasing human life expectancy by decades at least) has become a serious scientific pursuit. Even though the Roman Catholic Church has been, and continues to be, an active contributor to bioethical discourse, it has not yet ruled on the permissibility or desirability of this particular prospect. Over centuries, the Church has developed sophisticated doctrines on immortality, salvation, and transcendence that address human finitude, but these are described as being attainable only outside of, or beyond, the scope of this mortal, temporal human experience. The expectation of a growing number of scientists and philosophers is that, in due time, humans will know indefinite longevity or "virtual immortality") in the here-and-now. Here, I take up advances in biogerontology and a comparison of transhumanist and Roman Catholic approaches to RLE with special attention given to the ethical implications for personhood, the common good, the social order, and the environment. I also consider the possibility of classifying transhumanism as a secular religion.