Transcript 252524Tanshumanismandreview

Kenn Brown art
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The Epic of
Gilgamesh dates
from the 3rd
millennium BCE
and is one of the
finest surviving
epic poems in
world literature.
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"I believe in
transhumanism:
...once there are enough
people who can truly say that,
the human species will be on
the threshold of a new kind of
existence, as different from
ours as ours is from that of
Peking man. It will at last be
consciously fulfilling its real
destiny.“
Julian Huxley
1957
Singularity
“Singularity...
the point at which
technological
advancement will
become so rapid
that
the possibilities will
become endless...”
Transhumanism and civil liberties...
Technological self-determination
 Reproduction
 Cognition
 Gender re-assignment
 End of life technology
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Chimera
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In Mythology
Parahuman...
"human-animal hybrids"
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The Young Family 2002-3
Artist: Patricia Piccinini
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At Stanford University in California,
experiments aim to create mice with
human brains.
Relationship between eugenics
and transhumanism...
Perfecting the human race
Humanity as a work in progress
 Enlightenment thinking
 Evolution
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Transhumanists
vs.
Bioconservatives
James Rachels (1941-2003)
Exam advice…
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Review chapters 6 through 13
(No direct questions about the first five
chapters, although that knowledge might
help you answer the essay questions more
effectively.)
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Review lectures 10 to 24
(the second term plus the lecture
introducing Utilitarianism from the first
term)
By way of review: Moral theories
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Moral Skepticism
Moral Absolutism
Virtue Theory
Divine Command
Natural Law
Social Contract
Utilitarianism
Deontology
Ethical Egoism
Ethics of Care
Virtue Theory
(Protagoras)
(Plato)
(Aristotle)
(St. Augustine)
(St. Thomas)
(Hobbes)
(Bentham and Mill)
(Kant)
(Ayn Rand)
(Gilligan responding to Kohlberg)
(Elizabeth Anscombe)
Review the readings...
The ones we took up in class are the most
important....
 The Singer solution to world poverty
 Omelas
 Tuskegee
 Sherrice Iverson
 The experience machine
 Etc.
Review the PowerPoints...
They don’t outline the lecture...
They illustrate what is illustratable...
Note the quotations...
 Note the approximate timeframe...
 Note the publications...
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Jean-Paul Sartre
Freedom and morality…
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We are condemned to be free.
Existence precedes essence.
There is not a single one of our acts which
does not at the same time create an image
of man as we think he ought to be. To
choose to be this or that is to affirm at the
same time the value of what we choose.
Viktor Frankl
“No matter what the
circumstances we find
ourselves, we always
retain the last of human
freedoms – the ability
to choose one’s attitude
in a given set of
circumstances.”