The Hope and Despair of Human Bioenhancement
A Virtual Dialogue between the Oxford Transhumanists and Joseph Ratzinger
- Science & Faith
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2019
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Publisher's Description
The Hope and Despair of Human Bioenhancement is a virtual dialogue between Transhumanists of the "Oxford School" and the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. Set in the key of hope and despair, it considers whether or not the transhumanist interpretation of human limitations is correct, and whether their confidence in the methods of human enhancement, especially through biotechnology, corresponds to genuine hope. To this end, it investigates the philosophical foundations of transhumanism in modernity's rejection of metaphysics, the triumph of positivism, and the universalism of the theory of evolution, which when applied to anthropology becomes the materialist reduction of the human person. Ratzinger calls into question this absolutization of positive reason and its limitation of hope to what human beings can produce, naming it a pathology of reason, a mutilation of human dignity, and a facade of a world without hope. In its place, he offers a richer concept of hope that acknowledges our contingence and limitations.
Endorsements (2)
“This work evinces a masterly interplay of themes in philosophy, science, and theology. Paschal Corby brings into juxtaposition the radically different understandings of human nature to be found in transhumanist publications on the one side and Christian thought on the other. He compellingly argues that transhumanist thought is a symptom of the materialist reduction of human nature to chemicals, a denial of human freedom, and a tragic withering of hope in the capacity for transcendence.”
“Who would not want to listen to a dialogue between the unscrupulous Oxford transhumansts and the greatest Catholic thinker alive? Paschal Corby's book presents a concise, yet rigorous, confrontation over the Promethean potentiality of biotechnology and on the future of humanity, something which vitally concerns us all.”
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