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Medicine and Society, New Perspectives in Continental PhilosophyLiberal Eugenics, Human Enhancement and the Concept of the Normal

Medicine and Society, New Perspectives in Continental Philosophy: Liberal Eugenics, Human... [In this chapter, I examine the uses to which the concept of the normal is put in debates on liberal eugenics and human enhancement. I discuss three particular approaches to human nature and the normal: Jürgen Habermas’s emphasis on human nature as a normative concept that grounds the moral distinction between therapy and enhancement; the use of the ‘normal species function’ model of normality by Allen Buchanan and his co-authors; and finally, John Harris’s rejection of normality and consequent embrace of enhancement technologies. Following this, I draw on the work of Georges Canguilhem to outline a conception of the normal that would avoid the worries that hound Habermas’s normative account of human nature, while still allowing for a distinction between therapy and enhancement.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Medicine and Society, New Perspectives in Continental PhilosophyLiberal Eugenics, Human Enhancement and the Concept of the Normal

Part of the Philosophy and Medicine Book Series (volume 120)
Editors: Meacham, Darian
Mills, Catherine
Medicine and Society, New Perspectives in Continental Philosophy — May 23, 2015
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References (28)

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
ISBN
978-94-017-9869-3
Pages
179 –194
DOI
10.1007/978-94-017-9870-9_11
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[In this chapter, I examine the uses to which the concept of the normal is put in debates on liberal eugenics and human enhancement. I discuss three particular approaches to human nature and the normal: Jürgen Habermas’s emphasis on human nature as a normative concept that grounds the moral distinction between therapy and enhancement; the use of the ‘normal species function’ model of normality by Allen Buchanan and his co-authors; and finally, John Harris’s rejection of normality and consequent embrace of enhancement technologies. Following this, I draw on the work of Georges Canguilhem to outline a conception of the normal that would avoid the worries that hound Habermas’s normative account of human nature, while still allowing for a distinction between therapy and enhancement.]

Published: May 23, 2015

Keywords: Human Nature; Normative Conception; Genetic Intervention; Normal Species; Human Enhancement

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