Habermas on the Ability to Alter the Future of Human Nature

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E M İ N E R
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STEPHEN SNYDER, St. Louis (MO)/Istanbul
İnsan Doğasını Değiştirmek:
Nesiller Arası Adaletin Bir Gerekçesi
Changing Human Nature:
A Case for Intergenerational Justice
04
KASIM
2015
ÇARŞAMBA
17:15
Here, intergenerational justice is examined in
light of the technological capability to alter human nature. Using Habermas’ The Future of Human Nature, the paper focuses on 1) how our
biological self-understanding relates to a ‘species-based’ conception of justice and 2) how the
design preferences of one generation, which affect the biological makeup of subsequent generations, challenge a notion of justice linked to biological self-understanding. Habermas argues
that when genetic changes going beyond the
assumed consent of improving health and wellness are made we make irreversible design decisions in the genetic makeup of those who have
no say in this choice. At this point, the line between the kingdom of ends and the kingdom of
nature is ‘blurred’ as the preference of one generation’s notion of the good is permanently inscribed in the nature of successive generations,
breaking the chain of what heretofore could not
be altered – our actual physical makeup.
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