Giving Birth, Transhumanism and Human Nature

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7213/1980-5934.33.059.AO05

Palavras-chave:

human nature, evolution, birth, transhumanism, natality

Resumo

Philosopher Fiona Wollard recently advocated interpreting the achievements of women while giving birth. People readily recognize men-related achievements, like running a marathon, but not achievements related to giving birth. We expand on Woollard's notion of reproductive achievements, comparing them with ideas of human enhancement, which aims at humans becoming "stronger and faster". Criticisms to evolutionary psychology challenge its defense of a notion of a fixed human nature, and its disregard for the experience of birth. Some female scholars link human evolution to the presence of premature infants requiring attention from mothers and alloparents. They explain why this gave an advantage to the human species, enhancing cooperation and other desirable traits. Other scholars develop philosophies of birth, mostly based on Arendt's conception of natality, questioning a human nature not sensitive to gender, excluding birth and childhood. Then we move to transhumanism, proponent of human enhancement. Transhumanism questions our biological inheritance for being flawed and outdated, including giving birth, restricting this to a source of great suffering. This assessment of the given does not consider its ambiguous, dialectical character. Because of that, tinkering with nature both accomplishes and frustrates the goals of human enhancement.

Downloads

Não há dados estatísticos.

Biografia do Autor

Eduardo R Cruz, Depto. Ciências Sociais, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo

Doutor em Teologia sistemática pela Lutheran School of Chicago (1987), Professor titular e docente da PPG em Ciência da Religião da PUC/SP. Trabalha com histórica e filosofia da ciência, religiões seculares, natalidade e transhumanismo

Referências

BERGSMA, A. Transhumanism and the Wisdom of Old Genes: Is Neurotechnology a Source of Future Happiness? Journal of Happiness Studies, v. 1, p. 401–17, 2000.

BOSTROM, N. Welcome to a world of exponential change. In: MILLER, P.; WILDSON, J. (Eds.). Better Humans? The politics of human enhancement and life extension. London: Demos, 2006. p. 40-50.

BOSTROM, N.; SANDBERG, A. The Wisdom of Nature: An Evolutionary Heuristic for Human Enhancement. In: SAVULESCU, J.; Nick BOSTROM, N. Human Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. p. 374-416.

BUCKLEY, S. J. Undisturbed Birth: Nature’s Blueprint for Ease and Ecstasy. Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, v. 17, n. 4, p. 262-288, 2003.

CARTWRIGHT, J. Evolution and Human Behaviour. Darwinian perspectives on

the human condition. 3. ed. London: Palgrave / Macmillan, 2016.

CRUZ, Eduardo R. Transhumanism and the fate of natality: an introduction. Zygon, vol. 48, no. 4 (December), p. 916-935, 2013.

DAHAN, O. Birthing consciousness: A lacuna in evolutionary psychological science. New Ideas in Psychology, v. 60, 2021. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2020.100822.

DOWNES, S. M. Evolutionary Psychology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall Edition, 2018. Available at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolutionary-psychology/. Accessed in: 20 dec. 20, 2018.

DOWNES, S. M.; MACHERY, E. (eds.). Arguing About Human Nature: Contemporary Debates. New York: Routledge, 2013.

EARP, B. D.; SANDBERG, A.; SAVULESCU, J. “Natural Selection, Childrearing, and the Ethics of Marriage (and Divorce): Building a Case for the Neuroenhancement of Human Relationships.” Journal of Philosophy and Technology, v. 25, p. 561–87, 2012.

GUENTHER, Lisa. The gift of the other: Levinas and the politics of reproduction. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006.

HAUSKELLER, M. Human Nature from a Transhumanist Perspective. Existenz, v. 8, n. 2, p. 64-69, 2013.

HOBBES, T. Philosophicall Rudiments Concerning Government and Society. De Cive: the English version entitled in the first edition (The Clarendon edition of the philosophical works of Thomas Hobbes; v. 3) Oxford: Oxford University Press at The Clarendon Press, 1983 [1651].

HRDY, S. B. Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection. New York: Random House, 2000.

KATZ, B. F. Neuroengineering the Future: Virtual Minds and the Creation of Immortality. Hingham, MA: Infinity Science Press, 2008.

KEELING, D. M. History of (Future) Progress: Hyper-Masculine Transhumanist Virtuality. Critical Studies in Media Communication, v. 29, n. 2, p. 132-148, 2012. DOI:

1080/15295036.2012.666803.

KRONFELDNER, M.; Neil ROUGHLEY, N.; TOEPFER, G. Recent Work on Human Nature: Beyond Traditional Essences. Philosophy Compass, v. 9, n. 9, p. 642–652, 2014. DOI 10.1111/phc3.12159.

KURZWEIL, R. The Singularity Is Near. When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Viking Press, 2005.

LOPES, W. E. S. O transhumanismo e a questão antropológica. Revista de Filosofia Aurora, Curitiba, v. 32, n. 55, p. 36-61, jan./abr. 2020.

MANZOCCO, R. Transhumanism - Engineering the Human Condition. History, Philosophy and Current Status. Cham, CH - Chichester: Springer-Praxis, 2019.

MCNAMEE, M. J. Transhuman Athletes and Pathological Perfectionism: Recognising Limits in Sports and Human Nature. In: TOLLENEER, J.; STERCKX, S.; BONTE, P. (eds) Athletic Enhancement, Human Nature and Ethics. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5101-9_10.

MIAH, A. Towards the transhuman athlete: therapy, non-therapy and enhancement. Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, v. 13, n. 2, p. 221-233, 2010. DOI: 10.1080/17430430903522947.

MORE M. “Letter to Mother Nature.” In: MORE, M.; VITA-MORE, N. (ed.). The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2013[1999]. p. 449-50.

NARVAEZ D.; et al. The Value of Using an Evolutionary Framework for Gauging Children’s Well-Being. In: NARVAEZ, D., et al. (Eds.). Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. p. 03-30.

PEED, E. The Splintering and Controversy of Transhumanism. In: LEE, N. (ed.). Google It. Total Information Awareness. New York: Springer, 2016. p. 499-510.

PELLISSIER, H. Sexbots Will Give Us Longevity Orgasm. December 11, 2009. Available at https://hplusmagazine.com/2009/12/11/sexbots-will-give-us-longevity-orgasm/. Access in: 01 nov. 2019.

POWELL, R.; BUCHANAN, A. Breaking Evolution’s Chains: The Prospect of Deliberate Genetic Modification in Humans. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, v. 36, n. 6-27, 2011.

SAVULESCU, J.; KAHANE, G. The Moral Obligation to Create Children with the Best Chance of the Best Life. Bioethics, v. 23, p. 274–90, 2009.

SAVULESCU, J.; SANDBERG, A. Neuroenhancement of Love and Marriage: The Chemicals between Us. Neuroethics, v. 1, p. 31-44, 2008.

SAVULESCU, J.; SANDBERG, A. Engineering Love. New Scientist, v. 214, p. 28-29, 2012.

SCHÜES, C. Birth. In: SOLOMON, M.; SIMON, J. R.; KINCAID, H. The Routledge companion to philosophy of medicine. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2017.

SHARON, T. Human Nature in an Age of Biotechnology: The Case for Mediated Post humanism. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014.

SÖDERBÄCK, F. Birth. In: GOODMAN, R. T. The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st-Century Feminist Theory. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. p. 59-79.

STONE, A. Being Born. Birth and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

TEMKIN, L. Is Living Longer Living Better? In: SAVULESCU, S.; MEULEN, R.; KAHANE, G. Enhancing Human Capacities. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2011. p. 350-367.

TIROSH‐SAMUELSON, H. Transhumanism as A Secularist Faith. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, v. 47, n. 4, p. 710-734, 2012. DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2012.01288.x.

TREVATHAN, W. R. Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped Women’s Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

TREVATHAN, W.; ROSENBERG, K. Human Evolution and the Helpless Infant. In: TREVATHAN, W.; ROSENBERG, K. Costly and Cute: Helpless Infants and Human Evolution. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, 2016. p. 1-28.

TYLER, I. Introduction: Birth. Feminist Review, v. 93, n. 1, p. 1-7, 2009.

WOLBRING, G. What next for the human species? Human performance enhancement, ableism and pluralism. Development Dialogue, n. 52, p. 141-163, 2009.

WOLBRING, G. Obsolescence and body technologies. Dilemata, v. 2, n. 4, p. 67-83, 2010.

WOOLLARD, F. Philosophy can explain what kind of achievement it is to give birth. Aeon/Psyche, 2020. Available at: https://psyche.co/ideas/philosophy-can-explain-what-kind-of-achievement-it-is-to-give-birth?utm. Access in: August 20, 2020.

YOUNG, S. Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006.

ZANER, R. M. Visions and Re-visions: Life and the Accident of Birth. In: Harold, W. B.; TIMOTHY K. C. Is Human Nature Obsolete? Genetics, Bioengineering, and the Future of the Human Condition, ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. p. 177-208.

Downloads

Publicado

2021-08-31

Como Citar

Cruz, E. R. (2021). Giving Birth, Transhumanism and Human Nature. Revista De Filosofia Aurora, 33(59). https://doi.org/10.7213/1980-5934.33.059.AO05