Human Enhancement and the Anthropology of the “Entire Human Being”

About one and a half decades ago, two prominent reports were published in the United States (US) which strongly influenced subsequent international discussions on the topic of human enhancement: a 2002 report on “converging technologies for improving human performance”, based on a workshop which was organised by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Commerce in December 2001, and the first report of US President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics (PCBE), published in October 2003 with the title Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness. The 2002 report included a wide variety of contributions from academics in various fields of research, from representatives of US institutions, and from companies. Due primarily to the influence of the two NSF staff editing the report, it can be regarded as the first major instance of the influence of transhumanism, a techno-futurist ideology and movement, on the US technology and innovation discourse. The PCBE report, on the other hand, is a prime example of a conservative critique of the transhumanist notion of human enhancement. In this invited contribution, these two crucial publications are analysed mainly in order to point out the relevance of philosophical anthropology as developed since the 1920s by Helmuth Plessner and others. This remarkable school of thought is experiencing a revival in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, and, to some extent, in the English-speaking world. In this article, it is argued that philosophical anthropology provides us with an important alternative to both anthropological essentialism and scientism, two approaches that are still highly relevant in current discourse on human enhancement.     

On the New Form of Human Advancement and the Shared Values of Humanity—From the Perspective of the Relations Between Particularity and Universality

The relation between particularity and universality provides an important perspective to understand a new form of human advancement and the shared values of humanity, as well as their relations. On the one hand, as a unique state of civilization, a new form of human advancement is universal to a principle extent. China is moving closer to the center of the world; it will only give its particularity only if it can create universality since human universality is the essential attribute of socialism. A new form of human advancement also addresses universal problems facing mankind, embraces existing cultures, and coexists with them in harmony. On the other hand, as a reference to universal value, the shared values of humanity are precisely based on the particularity of “realistic man.” The difference is a premise that fundamentally defines how common is possible. Humanity is in the complex relationship between various groups and individual subjects, whose common values have the nature of good means to serve the universal purpose, and whose essence is the public value in the international community. Both a new form of human advancement and the shared values of humanity highlight the principal position of China. The connotation of the shared values of humanity constitutes the fundamental component of the core values of a new form of human advancement which in turn implements the shared values of humanity. Carrying forward the shared values of humanity poses higher requirements for China to develop a new form of human advancement.     

“Learning the Beautiful Language of Homer:” Judeo-Spanish Speaking Jews and the Greek Language and Culture between the Wars

The incorporation of Salonica into Greece following the Balkan Wars caused major changes in the lives of the local Jewish community. Once a religious minority in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, the Jews now found themselves a minority in a national state. Amidst this climate, the language question became a critical issue for Greek Jewry, particularly after the overwhelmingly Judeo-Spanish community of Salonica was required to adopt Greek. This article explores debates about language choice and acculturation that were published in Judeo-Spanish and consumed by readers, mainly in Salonica. It suggests that the community's educational system played a central role in the acculturation process. By dedicating a large share of the curricula to instruction of Greek and to teaching Greek history and geography, it was believed, the younger generation could be acquainted with Greek culture and thus able to participate fully in Greek public life. The older generation educated under Ottoman rule and fully ignorant of Greek language presented another challenge for those seeking linguistic assimilation. They had to be approached through Judeo-Spanish writing. The translations of Greek books and lectures given in Judeo-Spanish on Greek civilization were believed to enable them the absorption of Greek civilization. Even as sources such as this were published, the wide-spread use of Judeo-Spanish as a means of acculturation was believed to be temporary. As the language was not considered by anyone to serve as a national language, it was doomed to disappear even prior to the Holocaust, which eventually put an end to the thriving community of Salonica. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Telling tales out of school — Portrayals of the medical student experience by physician-novelists

Changes in medical and medical ethics education are being considered with little attention to the experience of the medical students involved. This study attempts to characterize and highlight certain aspects of that experience from a literary perspective. After a brief review of the history of traditional academic studies in the field, eight novels, written by physician-writers and featuring medical student protagonists, are analyzed. Several common themes of the student experience are identified in the novels, and are contrasted with themes found in the medical literature. A plea is made to acknowledge literary as well as scientific interpretations of the medical student experience when considering changes in medical education.     

Fallen or Unfallen? Christ's Human Nature and the Ontology of Human Sinfulness

Abstract: Because Christ's sinlessness is a matter of virtual consensus among Christians, debates over whether the human nature he assumed was fallen or unfallen turn on the ontological conditions of his being ‘without sin’ (Heb. 4:15). The claim that Christ assumed a fallen nature can be defended by distinguishing between fallenness and sinfulness as properties of nature and hypostasis, respectively. Moreover, by highlighting the peculiar place of the will in human nature, this christological analysis helps counter the charge that an Augustinian understanding of original sin entails a dualism inconsistent with belief in the goodness of creation and human moral accountability.     

Erikson’s Schedule of Human Strengths and the Childhood Origins of the Resourceful Self

This article focuses on Erik H. Erikson’s schedule of human strengths presented in his essay, “Human Strength and the Cycle of Generations” (1964). It discusses his assignment of human strengths to the eight stages of the life cycle, his view that the word “virtue” expresses their animated and spirited quality, and his view that these strengths are integral to the epigenetic developmental process. On the basis of his understanding of the human strengths as integral to the epigenetic developmental process, it proposes that the four human strengths developed in childhood are critically important to the development of the resourceful self. The article also suggests that we gain new insights into the eight human strengths when we view them as interrelated pairs, i.e., hope/will, purpose/competence, fidelity/love and care/wisdom.     

Well-Being, Quality of Life, and the Naïve Pursuit of Happiness

The pursuit of happiness is a long-enshrined tradition that has recently become the cornerstone of the American Positive Psychology movement. However, “happiness” is an over-worked and ambiguous word, which, it is argued, should be restricted and only used as the label for a brief emotional state that typically lasts a few seconds or minutes. The corollary proposal for positive psychology is that optimism is a preferable stance over pessimism or realism. Examples are presented both from psychology and economics that illustrate the dangers of optimism, and in which better outcomes can occur with a pessimistic stance. A more sophisticated approach is then presented in which, in relation to well-being and quality of life, neither optimism nor pessimism is seen as inherently better than the other, but, rather, in which psychological flexibility may contribute optimally to health and well-being.     

Old wives’ tales and philosophical delusions: on ‘the problem of women and African philosophy’

abstract

This article represents a response to ‘the problem of women and African philosophy’, which refers mainly to the absence of sRong women’s and feminist voices within the discipline of African philosophy. I investigate the possibility that African women are not so much excluded from the institutionalized discipline of philosophy, as preferring fiction as a genre for intellectual expression. This hypothesis can be supported by some feminists who read the absolute prioritisation of abstraction and generalization over the concrete and the particular as a masculine and western oppressive sRategy. Attention to the concrete and the unique which is made possible by literature more readily than by philosophy, could thus operate as a form of political resistance in certain contexts. If fiction is currently the preferred form of intellectual expression of African women, it is crucial that the community of professional philosophers in a context like South Africa should come to terms with the relevance of such a preference for philosophy’s self-conception, and it should work to make these intellectual contributions philosophically fruitful. In the process, we may entertain the hope that philosophy itself will move closer to its root or source as ‘love of wisdom’.     

Narasiṃha,the Supreme Deity of Andhra Pradesh: Tradition and Innovation in Hinduism—An Examination of the Temple Myths,Folk Stories,and Popular Culture

Narasi?ha is the most popular Vai??ava deity of Andhra Pradesh, with numerous temples found across Andhra Pradesh. Narasi?ha is the only theriomorphic deity to achieve this status, most commonly ascribed to anthropomorphic deities, such as Krishna (Gujarat), Rāma (North India), Murugan (Tamilnadu), and Kāli (Bengal). In order to understand the overall image of Narasi?ha and his rise to supreme status in Andhra Pradesh, I will examine the sthalapurā?as and folk traditions of Narasi?ha and include a demonstration of how the local traditions inform and interact in the religious experience and practice of society. The article is divided into two sections. The first section examines the sthalapurā?as (local temple myths) and ritual practices of selected Narasi?ha temples. The discrepancies are highlighted between the classical purā?a representation of Narasi?ha and the actual cultic praxis in contemporary Andhra Pradesh. The second section analyzes the folk mythology of Narasi?ha to understand the features which establish him as the most popular Vai??ava deity/avatāra of choice in Andhra Pradesh. Considered also are themes of Narasi?ha from popular culture. Apart from shedding light on the Vai??avism and Narasi?ha, this study contributes to the understanding of popular Hinduism in India.     

Optical recording of odor-evoked responses in the olfactory brain of the naïve and aversively trained terrestrial snails

Regular spontaneous oscillations were recorded both electro- and optophysiologically using a voltage-sensitive absorption dye in the olfactory part of the brain (procerebral lobe of the cerebral ganglia) of the gastropod mollusk Helix lucorum. Odor application caused transient changes in procerebral oscillations, and an odor-evoked potential was recorded in the procerebrum (PC). The wave of evoked potential originated near the place of olfactory nerve entrance into the PC and propagated via the procerebral neuropile toward the cell body layer. The spread of the odor-evoked potential corresponded roughly to the neuropile area, whereas the spontaneous oscillations were recorded in the cell body layer of the PC and were not observed in the neuropile. Evoked potential did not produce additional events intercalated into the ongoing spontaneous oscillations. Changes in parameters of spontaneous oscillations to the repeated presentations of the same odor were variable. To estimate the role of spontaneous oscillations in odor encoding, we trained the snail to avoid cineole, using paired presentations of cineole and electric shock. Elaboration of conditioned aversion to cineole applications resulted in distinct pairing-specific changes in behavior of the snails and procerebral activity. Responses to odor (cineole) applications were not different in amplitude or frequency of spontaneous oscillations in control and trained snails, whereas ratio of amplitudes of the same oscillation wave in proximal and distal regions of the procerebrum was significantly different in control and aversively trained snails, reflecting changes in neural firing in certain areas of the olfactory lobe.     

Do the Concepts of Grammar and Use in Wittgenstein Articulate a Theory of Language or Meaning?

The paper elucidates Wittgenstein's later conception of philosophy as devoid of theories or theses, comprehending this as an articulation of a strategy for avoiding dogmatism in philosophy. More specifically, it clarifies Wittgenstein's conception by using what he says about the concepts of meaning and language as an example and by developing an interpretation that purports to make plain that what Wittgenstein says about these issues does not constitute a philosophical thesis. Adopting Wittgenstein's approach, we can, arguably, have a richer view of meaning and language than a commitment to philosophical theses allows for. I conclude with remarks on the method of analysis in terms of necessary conditions.     

How Japanese Language Has Been Used and Transformed—Focused on Social-cultural Context and the Use in Communication

In this paper I address that flexibility and vagueness of mimic word, especially Gitai-go, can provide the communication with tension leading us to the continuous process of meaning construction, focused on the history of Japanese characters as the core of mimic words. I present that Hiragana, as the character for Gitai-go, was started to use by people viewed as of no public authority such as women at that time while Kanji had a position as an official characters. As unofficial character, Hiragana was received and transformed by common people as the character which is more flexible and vague suited to express persons’ experience than Kanji. Most of Gitai-go is written in Hiragana, and people can also create original and personalized one based on their experience. We can be driven by necessity to search the meanings of Gitai-go when we meet unknown one, through its vagueness. This undifferentiated nature and indefinite feature of Gitai-go provide us with tension of communication.     

Relativity of the human world and Dao in Lao-Zhuang—An Interpretation of chapter 1 of the Zhuang-zi and of the Lao-zi1

In this essay I offer an interpretative reading of the first chapter in the two canonical works, the Zhuang-zi and the Lao-zi, and argue that there is an inner connection between the first chapters of the two books. My presupposition is that what Zhuang-zi has argued in “Xiao Yao You” is the theme of the relativity of the position of the human world, which is in accord with the mystery of Dao presented at the beginning of the Lao-zi. Therefore, there are two opposite directions running in the Daoist philosophy in Lao-zi and Zhuang-zi: the first one is from this world (worlds) to Dao; the second one is from Dao to the worlds. While the first emphasizes the relativity of the point of views of the worldly beings, the second shows the mystery of Dao. This can be seen as a hermeneutical circle.     

Lourens Minnema: Tragic Views of the Human Condition: Cross-Cultural Comparisons Between Views of Human Nature in Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy and the Mahābhārata and Bhagavadgītā

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research -     

“Bodyheartminding” (Xin 心): Reconceiving the Inner Self and the Outer World in the Language of Holographic Focus and Field

In this essay, inspired by the somatic turn in philosophy initiated by Richard Shusterman, I want to invoke the language of classical Confucian philosophy to think through the best efforts of William James and John Dewey to escape the mind-body and nature-nurture dualisms—that is, to offer an alternative vocabulary that might lend further clarity to the revolutionary insights of James and Dewey by appealing to the processual categories of Chinese cosmology. What I will try to do first is to refocus the pragmatist’s explanation of the relationship between mind and body through the lens of a process Confucian cosmology. And then, to make the case for James and Dewey, I will return to the radical, imagistic language they invoke to try and make the argument that this processual, holistic understanding of “vital bodyminding” is in fact what they were trying to say all along.     

Introducing the Concepts of “Positions,” “Space,” and “Worlds”: Seeing Human Being and Becoming—and Religion—in New Ways

Theories of psychological development, however diverse, often express common underlying ontological-epistemological commitments shaped by the legacies of Descartes, Newton, and Kant. Three related psychoanalytic concepts—“positions,” “space,” and “worlds”—individually and collectively sketch the contours of a different way of construing human being and becoming—a way that departs from these legacies. Implications for the study of religion of this “different way” are examined.