| Description |
xiii, 256 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Part I. Pathways to the Future: 1. A tale of two dystopias; 2. Sciences of the brain; 3. Neuropharmacology and the control of behavior; 4. The prolongation of life; 5. Genetic engineering; 6. Why we should worry -- Part II. Being Human: 7. Human rights; 8. Human nature; 9. Human dignity -- Part III. What to Do: 10. The political control of biotechnology; 11. How biotechnology is regulated today; 12. Policies for the future |
| Summary |
"In 1989, Francis Fukuyama made his now-famous pronouncement that because the major alternatives to liberal democracy had exhausted themselves, history as we knew it had reached its end. Ten years later, he revised his argument: we hadn't reached the end of history, he wrote, because we hadn't yet reached the end of science. Arguing that the greatest advances still to come will be in the life sciences, Fukuyama now asks how the ability to modify human behavior will affect liberal democracy. To reorient contemporary debate, Fukuyama underlines man's changing understanding of human nature through history: from Plato and Aristotle's belief that man had "natural ends" to the ideals of utopians and dictators of the modern age who sought to remake mankind for ideological ends: Fukuyama persuasively argues that the ultimate prize of the biotechnology revolution -- intervention in the "germ line," the ability to manipulate the DNA of all of one person's descendants -- will have profound, and potentially terrible, consequences for our political order, even if undertaken by ordinary parents seeking to "improve" their children. In Our Posthuman Future, our greatest social philosopher describes the potential effects of our exploration on the foundation of liberal democracy: the belief that human beings are equal by nature." -- BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Paperback edition published 2003 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references pages [243]-256 |
| Subject |
Biotechnology.
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Social change -- History -- 20th century.
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Social history -- 1945-
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Social integration.
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Social norms -- History -- 20th century.
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Biotechnology -- Moral and ethical aspects.
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Human beings.
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Genetic engineering.
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Biotechnology -- Social aspects.
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Biotechnology -- Political aspects.
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| ISBN |
1861974957 |
|
9781861974952 |
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1861972970 |
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