In Defense Of The Human Being

Author : Thomas Fuchs
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9780192898197

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In Defense of the Human Being by Thomas Fuchs Pdf

With the progress of artificial intelligence, the digitalization of the lifeworld, and the reduction of the mind to neuronal processes, the human being increasingly appears to be just a product of data and algorithms. That is, we conceive ourselves in the image of our machines, and conversely, we elevate our machines and our brains to new subjects. At the same time, demands for an enhancement of human nature culminate in transhumanist visions of taking human evolution to a new stage. Against this self-reification of the human being, this book defends a humanism of embodiment: our corporeality, vitality, embodied freedom are the foundations of a self-determined existence, which uses these new technologies only as a means, instead of letting them rule us. In Defence of the Human Being offers an array of interventions directed against a reductionist naturalism or transhumanism in various areas of science and society. As alternative it offers an embodied and enactive account of the human person: we are neither pure minds nor brains, but primarily embodied, living beings in relation with others. Fuchs applied this concept to issues such as artificial intelligence, transhumanism and enhancement, virtual reality, neuroscience, embodied freedom, psychiatry, and finally to the accelerating dynamics of current society which lead to an increasing disembodiment of our everyday conduct of life. Cutting across neuroscience, philosophy, and psychiatry, this important new book applies cutting-edge concepts of embodiment and enactivism to the current scientific, technological and cultural tendencies that will crucially influence our society's development in the 21st century.

Author : Thomas Fuchs
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2021-09-23
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780192653192

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In Defence of the Human Being by Thomas Fuchs Pdf

With the progress of artificial intelligence, the digitalization of the lifeworld, and the reduction of the mind to neuronal processes, the human being increasingly appears to be just a product of data and algorithms. That is, we conceive ourselves “in the image of our machines”, and conversely, we elevate our machines and our brains to new subjects. At the same time, demands for an enhancement of human nature culminate in transhumanist visions of taking human evolution to a new stage. Against this self-reification of the human being, this book defends a humanism of embodiment: our corporeality, vitality, embodied freedom are the foundations of a self-determined existence, which uses these new technologies only as a means, instead of letting them rule us. In Defence of the Human Being offers an array of interventions directed against a reductionist naturalism or transhumanism in various areas of science and society. As alternative it offers an embodied and enactive account of the human person: we are neither pure minds nor brains, but primarily embodied, living beings in relation with others. Fuchs applied this concept to issues such as artificial intelligence, transhumanism and enhancement, virtual reality, neuroscience, embodied freedom, psychiatry, and finally to the accelerating dynamics of current society which lead to an increasing disembodiment of our everyday conduct of life. Cutting across neuroscience, philosophy, and psychiatry, this important new book applies cutting-edge concepts of embodiment and enactivism to the current scientific, technological and cultural tendencies that will crucially influence our society's development in the 21st century.

Author : John Hay
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2007-08-15
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781609380106

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In Defense of Nature by John Hay Pdf

Originally published in 1969, In Defense of Nature is an eloquent and prescient plea on behalf of the natural world. Devoid of sentimentality yet lyrical and deeply moving in its portrayals of our despoliation of nature, Hay’s classic work is now available to a new generation of readers.

Author : Kenneth Murphy,Paul Travers,Mark Walport,Peter Walter
Publisher : Garland Science
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2010-06-22
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0815344570

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Janeway's Immunobiology by Kenneth Murphy,Paul Travers,Mark Walport,Peter Walter Pdf

The Janeway's Immunobiology CD-ROM, Immunobiology Interactive, is included with each book, and can be purchased separately. It contains animations and videos with voiceover narration, as well as the figures from the text for presentation purposes.

Author : Christopher Robert Kaczor
Publisher : Notre Dame Studies in Medical
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0268033269

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A Defense of Dignity by Christopher Robert Kaczor Pdf

A Defense of Dignity argues that all human beings should be treated with respect and considers how this belief should be applied in controversial cases.

Author : Bruce Alberts
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Cytology
ISBN : 0815332181

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Molecular Biology of The Cell by Bruce Alberts Pdf

Author : Robert P. George,Christopher Tollefsen
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Embryonic stem cells
ISBN : 0981491146

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Embryo by Robert P. George,Christopher Tollefsen Pdf

Draws on current scientific research and moral philosophy to shed new light on the debate over abortion and stem-cell research, and maintains that, from the moment of conception, embryos are entitled to the full protection of the law.

Author : Tom Regan
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0520054601

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The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan Pdf

THE argument for animal rights, a classic since its appearance in 1983, from the moral philosophical point of view. With a new preface.

Author : Nicholas Agar
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2023-09-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780262549202

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Truly Human Enhancement by Nicholas Agar Pdf

A nuanced discussion of human enhancement that argues for enhancement that does not significantly exceed what is currently possible for human beings. The transformative potential of genetic and cybernetic technologies to enhance human capabilities is most often either rejected on moral and prudential grounds or hailed as the future salvation of humanity. In this book, Nicholas Agar offers a more nuanced view, making a case for moderate human enhancement—improvements to attributes and abilities that do not significantly exceed what is currently possible for human beings. He argues against radical human enhancement, or improvements that greatly exceed current human capabilities. Agar explores notions of transformative change and motives for human enhancement; distinguishes between the instrumental and intrinsic value of enhancements; argues that too much enhancement undermines human identity; considers the possibility of cognitively enhanced scientists; and argues against radical life extension. Making the case for moderate enhancement, Agar argues that many objections to enhancement are better understood as directed at the degree of enhancement rather than enhancement itself. Moderate human enhancement meets the requirement of truly human enhancement. By radically enhancing human cognitive capabilities, by contrast, we may inadvertently create beings (“post-persons”) with moral status higher than that of persons. If we create beings more entitled to benefits and protections against harms than persons, Agar writes, this will be bad news for the unenhanced. Moderate human enhancement offers a more appealing vision of the future and of our relationship to technology.

Author : Michael D. Greaney
Publisher : Center for Economic and Social Justice
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0944997023

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In Defense of Human Dignity by Michael D. Greaney Pdf

A compilation of articles previously appearing in Social Justice Review, based on the Four Pillars of an Economically Just Society: 1) Limited economic role for the State, 2) Free and open markets, 3) Restoration of the rights of private property, and 4) Widespread direct ownership of the means of production. The Just Third Way is a holistic program developed by the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice ("CESJ") in Arlington, Virginia, USA, in response to the growing disparities of wealth and the failure of today's institutions to meet people's wants and needs in a manner consistent with their essential dignity as human beings. Analyzing the applications of natural law as expressed in Catholic social teaching, the articles demonstrate the universality of the principles underpinning the Just Third Way from the perspective of that particular faith tradition.

Author : George P. Fletcher,Jens David Ohlin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2013-02-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780198040354

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Defending Humanity by George P. Fletcher,Jens David Ohlin Pdf

In Defending Humanity, internationally acclaimed legal scholar George P. Fletcher and Jens David Ohlin, a leading expert on international criminal law, tackle one of the most important and controversial questions of our time: When is war justified? When a nation is attacked, few would deny that it has the right to respond with force. But what about preemptive and preventive wars, or crossing another state's border to stop genocide? Was Israel justified in initiating the Six Day War, and was NATO's intervention in Kosovo legal? What about the U.S. invasion of Iraq? In their provocative book, Fletcher and Ohlin offer a groundbreaking theory on the legality of war with clear guidelines for evaluating these interventions. The authors argue that much of the confusion on the subject stems from a persistent misunderstanding of the United Nations Charter. The Charter appears to be very clear on the use of military force: it is only allowed when authorized by the Security Council or in self-defense. Unfortunately, this has led to the problem of justifying force when the Security Council refuses to act or when self-defense is thought not to apply--and to the difficult dilemma of declaring such interventions illegal or ignoring the UN Charter altogether. Fletcher and Ohlin suggest that the answer lies in going back to the domestic criminal law concepts upon which the UN Charter was originally based, in particular, the concept of "legitimate defense," which encompasses not only self-defense but defense of others. Lost in the English-language version of the Charter but a vital part of the French and other non-English versions, the concept of legitimate defense will enable political leaders, courts, and scholars to see the solid basis under international law for states to intervene with force--not just to protect themselves against an imminent attack but also to defend other national groups.

Author : Jason T. Eberl
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2020-06-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780268107758

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The Nature of Human Persons by Jason T. Eberl Pdf

Is there a shared nature common to all human beings? What essential qualities might define this nature? These questions are among the most widely discussed topics in the history of philosophy and remain subjects of perennial interest and controversy. The Nature of Human Persons offers a metaphysical investigation of the composition of the human essence. For a human being to exist, does it require an immaterial mind, a physical body, a functioning brain, a soul? Jason Eberl also considers the criterion of identity for a developing human being—that is, what is required for a human being to continue existing as a person despite undergoing physical and psychological changes over time? Eberl's investigation presents and defends a theoretical perspective from the thirteenth-century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. Advancing beyond descriptive historical analysis, this book places Aquinas’s account of human nature into direct comparison with several prominent contemporary theories: substance dualism, emergentism, animalism, constitutionalism, four-dimensionalism, and embodied mind theory. These theories inform various conclusions regarding when human beings first come into existence—at conception, during gestation, or after birth—and how we ought to define death for human beings. Finally, each of these viewpoints offers a distinctive rationale as to whether, and if so how, human beings may survive death. Ultimately, Eberl argues that the Thomistic account of human nature addresses the matters of human nature and survival in a much more holistic and desirable way than the other theories and offers a cohesive portrait of one’s continued existence from conception through life to death and beyond.

Author : Ari Kohen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2007-03-06
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781134110353

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In Defense of Human Rights by Ari Kohen Pdf

The argument that religion provides the only compelling foundation for human rights is both challenging and thought-provoking and answering it is of fundamental importance to the furthering of the human rights agenda. This book establishes an equally compelling non-religious foundation for the idea of human rights, engaging with the writings of many key thinkers in the field, including Michael J. Perry, Alan Gewirth, Ronald Dworkin and Richard Rorty. Ari Kohen draws on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a political consensus of overlapping ideas from cultures and communities around the world that establishes the dignity of humans and argues that this dignity gives rise to collective human rights. In constructing this consensus, we have succeeded in establishing a practical non-religious foundation upon which the idea of human rights can rest. In Defense of Human Rights will be of interest to students and scholars of political theory, philosophy, religious studies and human rights.

Author : Josef Pieper
Publisher : Ignatius Press
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2011-08-08
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781681492551

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In Defense of Philosophy by Josef Pieper Pdf

This book is an engagement between a great modern philosopher defending classical philosophy against an army of challengers to the very notion of philosophy as classically conceived. It is written very much in the spirit of the scholastic disputations in the medieval universities, which produced the great Summas: a mutual search for truth, a philosophical laboratory, a careful winnowing of each objection. Such objectivity is lamentably rare in contemporary philosophy. In order to combat modern misunderstandings of challenges to the classical concept of philosophy, Pieper shows us the unique and uniquely valuable thing philosophy is as conceived by his masters: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and above all, Aquinas. Along this path he scatters gems of insight, such as: art and religion as Philosophy's defenders; the relationship between philosophy and science; philosophy as "seeing and saying"; and philosophy as rooted in meditation and loving contemplation. Pieper emphasizes that philosophy is something all human beings do, and should be the better for doing.

Author : Institute of Medicine,Committee on Military Nutrition Research
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 722 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 1999-05-13
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780309173186

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Military Strategies for Sustainment of Nutrition and Immune Function in the Field by Institute of Medicine,Committee on Military Nutrition Research Pdf

Every aspect of immune function and host defense is dependent upon a proper supply and balance of nutrients. Severe malnutrition can cause significant alteration in immune response, but even subclinical deficits may be associated with an impaired immune response, and an increased risk of infection. Infectious diseases have accounted for more off-duty days during major wars than combat wounds or nonbattle injuries. Combined stressors may reduce the normal ability of soldiers to resist pathogens, increase their susceptibility to biological warfare agents, and reduce the effectiveness of vaccines intended to protect them. There is also a concern with the inappropriate use of dietary supplements. This book, one of a series, examines the impact of various types of stressors and the role of specific dietary nutrients in maintaining immune function of military personnel in the field. It reviews the impact of compromised nutrition status on immune function; the interaction of health, exercise, and stress (both physical and psychological) in immune function; and the role of nutritional supplements and newer biotechnology methods reported to enhance immune function. The first part of the book contains the committee's workshop summary and evaluation of ongoing research by Army scientists on immune status in special forces troops, responses to the Army's questions, conclusions, and recommendations. The rest of the book contains papers contributed by workshop speakers, grouped under such broad topics as an introduction to what is known about immune function, the assessment of immune function, the effect of nutrition, and the relation between the many and varied stresses encountered by military personnel and their effect on health.