Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement

The paper discusses the role of anthropological arguments in contemporary ethics as exemplified in the current debate about biotechnological human enhancement interventions. Anthropological arguments refer to a normative conception of what it means to be a human being and are highly contested in con...

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Main Author: Jan-Christoph Heilinger
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associazione Culturale Humana.Mente 2014-05-01
Series:Humana.Mente: Journal of Philosophical Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/HM/article/view/117
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author Jan-Christoph Heilinger
author_facet Jan-Christoph Heilinger
author_sort Jan-Christoph Heilinger
collection DOAJ
description The paper discusses the role of anthropological arguments in contemporary ethics as exemplified in the current debate about biotechnological human enhancement interventions. Anthropological arguments refer to a normative conception of what it means to be a human being and are highly contested in contemporary moral philosophy. Most often they are promoted to constrain the ethically acceptable use of enhancement technologies. I argue that anthropological arguments can play a fundamental and important role in assessing the moral qualities of enhancement interventions, but only if their normative justification and their specific content are properly determined. I offer an account how to do so, based on the contractualist and pragmatist ideal that all those who are affected by a decision of normative relevance should be included in what I call a “quasi-democratic deliberative process”. However, given that they stand in need of wide agreement, anthropological arguments resulting from such a process will be rather minimal in content. In the exemplary debate about human enhancements they hence turn out to be widely – though not fully – permissive and unable to justify a restrictive stance towards enhancement interventions.
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spelling doaj.art-212a44aa94a946eeaff8eb150e8bd08d2022-12-21T18:35:08ZengAssociazione Culturale Humana.MenteHumana.Mente: Journal of Philosophical Studies1972-12932014-05-01726Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human EnhancementJan-Christoph Heilinger0Munich Center for Ethics, University of Munich, GermanyThe paper discusses the role of anthropological arguments in contemporary ethics as exemplified in the current debate about biotechnological human enhancement interventions. Anthropological arguments refer to a normative conception of what it means to be a human being and are highly contested in contemporary moral philosophy. Most often they are promoted to constrain the ethically acceptable use of enhancement technologies. I argue that anthropological arguments can play a fundamental and important role in assessing the moral qualities of enhancement interventions, but only if their normative justification and their specific content are properly determined. I offer an account how to do so, based on the contractualist and pragmatist ideal that all those who are affected by a decision of normative relevance should be included in what I call a “quasi-democratic deliberative process”. However, given that they stand in need of wide agreement, anthropological arguments resulting from such a process will be rather minimal in content. In the exemplary debate about human enhancements they hence turn out to be widely – though not fully – permissive and unable to justify a restrictive stance towards enhancement interventions.http://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/HM/article/view/117human enhancementnormative justificationethical issues
spellingShingle Jan-Christoph Heilinger
Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement
Humana.Mente: Journal of Philosophical Studies
human enhancement
normative justification
ethical issues
title Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement
title_full Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement
title_fullStr Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement
title_full_unstemmed Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement
title_short Anthropological Arguments in the Ethical Debate about Human Enhancement
title_sort anthropological arguments in the ethical debate about human enhancement
topic human enhancement
normative justification
ethical issues
url http://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/HM/article/view/117
work_keys_str_mv AT janchristophheilinger anthropologicalargumentsintheethicaldebateabouthumanenhancement