Human enhancement technologies and the arguments for cosmopolitanism

  1. Francisco Javier Rodríguez Alcázar 1
  2. Lilian Bermejo Luque 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Granada
    info

    Universidad de Granada

    Granada, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04njjy449

Zeitschrift:
Enrahonar: an international journal of theoretical and practical reason

ISSN: 0211-402X,  2014-881X

Datum der Publikation: 2024

Titel der Ausgabe: Un gir polític al debat sobre la millora genètica

Nummer: 72

Seiten: 15-33

Art: Artikel

DOI: 10.5565/REV/ENRAHONAR.1489 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDDD editor

Andere Publikationen in: Enrahonar: an international journal of theoretical and practical reason

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

Zusammenfassung

According to political minimalism, a debate is considered political when it revolves around the question “What shall we do?” This account suggests that certain issues related to human enhancement technologies (HETs), which have traditionally been addressed in the realm of applied ethics, could be better approached from a political standpoint. However, this raises the question of who constitutes the “we” – the communities that face the political challenges posed by HETs. We argue that there is a global human community that directly faces at least some of these challenges, and this fact underscores the relevance of a cosmopolitan perspective. While some authors have already advocated for a cosmopolitan approach in addressing issues such as poverty or climate change, they often do so from a moral outlook, without adequately distinguishing between ethics and politics. In contrast, we assert that HETs present compelling arguments in favour of cosmopolitanism as a political stance. In support of this claim, we consider two cases: the pills that would allow people to eat at will without gaining weight, and the choice between different types of cognitive enhancers.

Bibliographische Referenzen

  • ALEXANDER, James (2014). “Notes Towards a Definition of Politics”. Philosophy, 89 (2), 273-300.
  • BEITZ, Charles (1979). Political Theory and International Relations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • BERMEJO-LUQUE, Lilian (forthcoming). “Williams, For and Against: Politics as a Constitutively Normative Practice”.
  • BERMEJO-LUQUE, Lilian and RODRÍGUEZ-ALCÁZAR, Javier (forthcoming). “Politics, Normativity, and Political Normativity”.
  • BIJKER, Wiebe; HUGHES, Thomas and PINCH, Trevor (eds.) (1989). The Social Construction of Technological Systems. New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
  • BLANK, Robert H. (2016). Cognitive Enhancement: Social and Public Policy Issues. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • BOSTROM, Nick and ROACHE, Rebecca (2011). “Smart Policy: Cognitive Enhancement and the Public Interest”. In: SAVULESCU, Julian; TER MEULEN, Ruud and KAHANE, Guy (eds.). Enhancing Human Capacities. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • CABRERA, Laura (2012). Rethinking human enhancement: social enhancement and emergent technologies. London: Palgrave McMillan.
  • CABRERA, Luis (2004). Political Theory of Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Case for the World State. London: Routledge.
  • CLOOTS, Anacharsis (1792). La République universelle ou adresse aux tyrannicides. Paris: Chez les Marchands de Nouveautés.
  • COLZATO, Lorenza; HOMMEL, Bernhard and BESTE, Christian (2020). “The Downsides of Cognitive Enhancement”. The Neuroscientist, 27 (4), 322-330.
  • FIRTH, Roderick (1952). “Ethical absolutism and the ideal observer”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 12 (3), 317-345.
  • FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (2019). The state of food and agriculture. Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction. Rome: FAO.
  • HARE, Richard M. (1981). Moral Thinking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • KAMM, Francess (2009). “What Is and Is Not Wrong with Enhancement?” In: SAVULESCU, Julian and BOSTROM, Nick (eds.). Human Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • KANT, Immanuel (1795). Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch, translated by H.B. Nisbet. In: REISS, H.S. (ed.). Kant: Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
  • KLEINGELD, Pauline and BROWN, Eric (2019). “Cosmopolitanism”. In: Edward N. ZALTA (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition). Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/cosmopolitanism/
  • LATOUR, Bruno (2005). Reassembling the social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  • POGGE, Thomas (1992). “Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty”. Ethics, 103, 48-75.
  • POGGE, Thomas (1993). “Cosmopolitanism”. In: GOODIN, Robert E.; PETTIT, Philip and POGGE, Thomas (eds.). A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • POGGE, Thomas (2008). World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • RAWLS, John (1999). The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • RODRÍGUEZ-ALCÁZAR, Javier (2017a). “Beyond Realism and Moralism: A Defense of Political Minimalism”. Metaphilosophy, 48, 727-744.
  • RODRÍGUEZ-ALCÁZAR, Javier (2017b). “Political Minimalism and Social Debates: The Case of Human-Enhancement Technologies”. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 14, 347-357.
  • RODRÍGUEZ-ALCÁZAR, Javier; BERMEJO-LUQUE, Lilian and MOLINA-PÉREZ, Alberto (2021). “Do Automated Vehicles Face Moral Dilemmas? A Plea for a Political Approach”. Philosophy of Technology, 34, 811-832. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00432-5
  • ROSSI, Enzo (2019). “Being realistic and demanding the impossible”. Constellations, 26, 638-652.
  • ROTTER, David et al. (2018). “Regulator of Calcineurin 1 helps coordinate whole-body metabolism and thermogenesis”. EMBO Reports, 19. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201744706
  • SANDBERG, Ander and SAVULESCU, Julian (2011). “The Social and Economic Impacts of Cognitive Enhancement”. In: SAVULESCU, Julian; TER MEULEN, Ruud and KAHANE, Guy (eds.). Enhancing Human Capacities. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • SHARIF, Safia; GUIRGUIS, Amira; FERGUS, Suzanne and SCHIFANO, Fabrizio (2021). “The Use and Impact of Cognitive Enhancers among University Students: A Systematic Review”. Brain Sciences, 11 (3), 355. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11030355
  • SINGER, Peter (2009). The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. New York: Random House.
  • SINGER, Peter (2016). One World Now: The Ethics of Globalization. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • STIGLER, George Joseph (1972). The Adoption of Marginal Utility Theory (History of Political Economy, Vol. 2). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • TÄNNSJÖ, Torbjörn (2008). Global Democracy: The Case for a World Government. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • UNITED NATIONS (2015). Millennium Development Goals website. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/. Accessed 5 September 2022.
  • UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME (2021). Food Waste Index Report 2021. Nairobi: UNEP.
  • WENDT, Alexander (2011). “Why a World State is Inevitable”. In: CABRERA, Luis (ed.). Global Governance, Global Government: Institutional Visions for an Evolving World System. Albany, NJ: SUNY Press.
  • WILLIAMS, Bernard (2005). In the beginning was the deed: Realism and moralism in political argument. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • WINNER, Langdon (1986). The whale and the reactor: a search for limits in an age of high technology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet