On Human Nature: Anthropological, Biological, and Philosophical Foundations

251 Pages·2002·9.24 MB·English

by  Gernot Böhme (auth.)

Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment 15
Schriftenreihe der Europäischen Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen
wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH
Series Editor: Carl Friedrich Gethmann
Armin Grunwald · Matthias Gutmann
Editors
Eva M. Neumann-Held
On Human
Nature
Anthropological, Biological, and
Philosophical Foundations
Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung
Band 15
Schriftenreihe der Europäischen Akademie zur Erforschung
von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH
herausgegeben von earl Friedrich Gethmann
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Armin Grunwald . Mathias Gutmann
Eva M. Neumann-Held (Eds.)
On Human Nature
Anthropologieal, Biological,
and Philosophical Foundations
Springer
Reihenherausgeber
Professor Dr. earl hiedrich Gethmann
Europäische Akademie GmbH
WilhelmstraGe 56, 53474 Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. Cermany
Bandherausgeber
Professor Dr. Armin Grunwald
Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe
Postt~lCh 3640, 7602\ Karlsruhe, Germany
Dr. Dr. Mathias Gutmann
Institut für Philosophie, Universitiit Marburg
ßlitzweg \6,35039 Marburg, Germany
Dr. Eva M. Neumann-Held
Institut für Philosophie, Universit:it Marburg
Blitzweg \A, 35039 Marburg, Ccrmany
Redaktion
Friedcrike Wütschcr
Europäische Akademie CmbH
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Europäische Akademie
zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH
The Europäische Akademie
The Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer
Entwicklungen GmbH is concerned with the scientific study of consequences of
scientific and technological advance for the individual and social life and for the
natural environment. Thc Europäische Akademie intends to contribute to a rational
way of society of dealing with the consequences of scientific and technological
developments. This aim is mainly realised in the development of recommendations
for options to act, from the point of view of long-term societal acceptance. The
work of the Europäische Akademie mostly takes place in temporary interdis
ciplinary project groups, whose members are recognised scientists from European
universities. Overarching issues, e.g. from the fields of Technology Assessment or
EthiC'i of Science, are dealt with by the staff of the Europäische Akademie.
The Series
The series "Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung" (Ethics of Science
and Technology Assessment) serves to publish the results of the work of the Euro
päische Akademie. It is published by the Academy's director. ßesides the final results
of the project groups the series includes volumes on general questions of ethics of
science and technology assessment as weil as other mO'1ographic studies.
Foreword
Modern molecular technology in the so-called life sciences (biology as weil as
medicine) allows today to approach and manipulate living beings in ways and to an
extent wh ich not too long aga seemed Utopian. The empirical progress promises
further and even more radical developments in the future, and it is at least often
claimed that this kind of research will have tremendeous etfects on and for all of
humanity, for example in the areas of food production, transplantation medicine
(including stem cell research and xenotransplantation), (therapeutic) genetic
manipulation and (cell-line) cloning (of cell lines or tissues), and of biodiversity
conservation-strategies.
At least in Western, industrialized countries the development of modern sciences
led to a steady increase of human health, well-being and quality of life. However,
with the move to make the human body itself an object of scientific research
interests, the respective scientific descriptions resulted in changes in the image that
human beings have of themselves. Scientific progress has led to a startling loss of
traditional human self-understanding. This development is in contrast to an under
standing according to which the question what it means to be "human" is treated in
the realm of philosophy. And indeed, a closer look reveals that - without denying
the value of scientitic progress - science cannot replace the philosophical approach
to anthropological questions. On the other hand, however, philosophical analysis
cannot and should not dismiss knowledge gained by empirical approaches of life
sciences. What is needed is an interdisciplinary dialogue. The organization of such
a platform was the goal when the Europäische Akademie organized an int.::rnational
and interdisciplinary symposium on the topie "On Human Nature - Biological
Approaches and Philosophical Renections" (March 15-18, 1999).
Many speakers of this conference decided to participate in the publication of the
present book. Ilike to thank all authors for their contributions. Furthermore, my thanks
goes to the editors for their eommitment in initiating and organizing this project.
The book series "Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung" of the
Europäische Akademie is devoted primarily to the publication of the work-reports
of the project groups, of the proceedings of conferences organized by the academy,
of works on the foundations of ethics, the ethics of science, and other issues related
to the work of the Europäische Akademie.
I wish this book that it may find attention in the relevant circles of academic
disciplines, and that it may inspire the needed further research and renection on
"Human Nature".
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, September 200 I earl Friedrieh Gethmann
Preface
The industrial revolution of the 19th century wh ich was followed by aseries of
cultural and societal upheavals marked the beginning of fundamental changes in
our understanding of ourselves as "human beings". It was accompanied by philo
sophical approaches to anthropology. However, the methodological shortcomings
of "philosophical anthropology" soon became visible, and now, at the start of a new
millennium, it seems that the authority for supplying explanations of human nature
has shifted completely from philosophy and humanities to the natural sciences. Not
only in the public mind, it is particularly medicine and biology - here the cognitive
sciences and genetic approaches - that are assumed to supply an almost unlimited
access to "objective facts" on human evolution, history, and existence. In contrast,
the technical success and the prospect of future technological developments in the
biosciences are raising many ethical questions with regard to the ongoing "tech
nicalization" of humans. At a closer look, however, it becomes apparent that the
treatment of those ethical questions depends on a clarification of the underlying
anthropological assumptions and a methodological examination oftheir validity. In
other words: It might be time for philosophy to regain its authority to contribute to
the questions on "human nature".
But how can this be approached? Although it is clear that such approaches
cannot be developed ignoring the assumptions, theories and empirical results of the
natural sciences, it is also evident that the natural sciences are not determined by a
single set of such assumptions, theories and results. On the contrary, there are
diverse theoretical frameworks available, which might very well be based on and
lead to different anthropological assumptions. Therefore, to approach the question
of human nature in face of the ongoing technicalization of human nature, it is
necessary to first initiate communication between relevant disciplines in the natural
sciences and philosophy.
At a time when all three of us were still members of the scientific statT of the
Europäische Akademie, we had the pleasure of having the opportunity to explore
these issues by making them the topic of the 1999 spring symposium titled "On
Human Nature. Biological Approaches and Philosophical Reflections". Many
researchers accepted our invitation to this interdisciplinary and international con
ference, and it was not least due to the active participation not only of the speakers
but also of a very interested academic audience that the symposium became a
platform for discussions that bridged the usual disciplinary boundaries, and the
discipline-typical problem-solving strategies.
This conference inspired us to put together a collection of papers on the topic of
"Human Nature". However, the conference also showed us that we tried to cover
almost too many issues. We decided that for the book the framework of topics
X Preface
should bc narrower allowing particular topics to be treated in more detail. [n order
to reach this goal it was only possible to sekct some of the speakers from the
conference on the basis of the topics that they had presented. These speakers were
to elaborate and extend their presentations as contributions to our book project. To
cover more aspects related to the chosen topics we approached several additional
researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds. Some of them had participated
in the discussions at the conference, but did not have the opportunity to express
their viewpoints in a presentation; some were not conference participants at all. All
potential contributors were asked to write papers in wh ich they used their discipli
nary backgrounds to elaborate on particular points with view on an interdisciplinary
readership.
Participation in such an interdisciplinary book project is not a usual task, and
therefore we were (and are) delighted that most of the researchers we approached
agreed to our request. All articIes were subjected to an internal review procedure,
and we wish to thank the authors for their wiIIingness to consider and (often) to use
our critical remarks and recommendations.
[n a sense this book can be viewed as the manifestation of the presentation and
discussion of arguments between different representatives of philosophy and of the
natural sciences.
In vicw of the main topics the articles are grouped into three sections. In the first
section the ongoing technicalization of human nature is critically viewed in three
articIes.
Gernot Böhme points out that although traditional European philosophy gener
ated vanous dichotomies (such as nature and culture or nature and techno[ogy),
which articulated the self-understanding of human beings, all traditions have in
common that human nature has remained an unrenouncable topos. For the first time
in history this has changed. Böhme wams that modern medical and life sciences
threaten the unrenouncability of human nature, and that the human body itself is
becoming a subject of technologization, wh ich in itself is a threat to human dignity.
He proposes a critical theory of human nature that makes it possible to resist to the
unrestrained technologization of human being.
[n contrast to Böhme, Frederic Ferre views the technicalization of the human
body as not necessarily undermining human nature and human dignity. Within the
framework of personalistic organicism, Ferre argues for a specific grade of aware
ness as an essential constituent of human nature. This constituent is not threatened
by technical interventions, as Ferre shows by discussing the example of human
cloning. Nevertheless, Ferre, too, wams against the application of such modern
technologies because the "modern world is not morally or metaphysically ready to
receive cIoned persons into our midst". Human self-perception in its relationship to
the development of natural sciences is also the topic of Christoph Rehmann
Sutter's contribution. He refutes a particular kind of genome metaphysics, which
views the human genome as a program oflfor human nature. As an alternative he
suggests a "systemic theory of DNA" and discusses and evaluates so me anthro
pological implications of this approach.
All three contributions use a particular viewpoint to describe and presuppose
specific biological knowledge in order to evaluate the possible ethical and philo
sophical impact of technological orientation of life sciences on the modern image
Preface XI
of human beings. As Rehmann-Sutter began already in his article. biologieal
ur
knowledge itself is the subjeet of the biotheoretieal considerations in the articles
the second seetion. From these it will become evident that in biosciences one can
find diverse, often opposing approaches toward (and models for) the investigation
of human nature, which have at least the potential to result in different interpre
tations. In Hans-Rainer Duneker's analysis human beings are described as the
result of an ongoing process of evolutionary integration and differentiation of
several systemic levels. Their uniqueness is expressed by the emergence of social
and cultural abilities that transcend the level of biological reduction. Following this
comprehensive overview the structure of biological descriptions is exemplified in
the treatment of neurobiological and cognitive sciences on the one hand, and
theories of genetics and developmental biology on the other hand. Introducing the
concepts of cognitive research Ernst Pöppel presents empirical evidence for his
approach to model conscious activity on the basis of fundamental logistir.,· and
content jimctions. He points out the significance of a highly preserved temporal
operating platform providing "three seconds" as the "singular states of being
conscious". Olaf Breidbach focuses on another important aspect of cognitive
processing. Following the concept of internal representation, he introduces an
artifieial device that fulfills the criterion of a eomplete assoeiative system. He
argues that this device serves as powerful tool for the understanding of the
functional organisation of an associative system established in the vertebrate brain.
Peter Janich emphasises the necessity to constitute sciences within everyday
lifeworld practices (such as cooperation and communication). This allows him to
rccognize the usefulness of natural scientitic description for certain contexts (c.g.
the cultural determination of cognition, validity criteria and functions in coping
with life). However, on the basis of a methodological viewpoint hc criticises the
significance of empirical and theoretical approaches used within neurological
and cognitive sciences for their claim to supply justified and justifiable images
of humans.
With the analysis of the genotype - phenotype relationship in Ulrich Wolf's
contribution we enter the field of genetic and developmental research. From the
field of human genetics Wolf presents empirical evidence that not even so-called
monofactorial diseases can be explained without reference to epigenetic factors.
The limitations of genetic explanations are also the subject in the articles by Scott
Gilbert and Eva M. Neumann-Held. Developmental biologist Gilbert dcplores
certain images of genetic determinism (and genetic centrism), which are being
communicated to the public in the name of developmental biology. Using three
examples he scrutinizes and refutes the empirical basis of genetic determinism.
This criticism is taken up and expanded in the contribution of Neumann-Held. She
contrasts genetic centrism with alternative approaches, and shows that the usual
reference to the causal explanatory power of genes is insufficient for the description
of developmental processes. From this point of view the assumption that human
nature is explicable in terms of the human genome is rejected. Furthermore, tradi
tional dichotomies, such as the distinction between "nature" and "nurture" become
increasingly questionable in the light of alternatives to genetic centrism. This is the
main focus of Susan Oyama's article, wh ich treats this problem in the framework of
her Developmental S,vstems Approach.