On Human Nature

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XX

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2. The Nature of Human Nature: Ethical and General Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. On Human Nature

      • Gernot Böhme

      Pages 3-14

   3. Personalistic Organicism and the Human Social Animal

      • Frederick Ferré

      Pages 15-21

   4. Genetics, Embodiment and Identity

      • Christoph Rehmann-Sutter

      Pages 23-50

3. Biology in Discourse: Biotheoretical Considerations on Human Nature

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51

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   2. The Biological Fundamentals of Human Cultural Developments and their Unique Functional Integrations

      • Hans-Rainer Duncker

      Pages 53-72

   3. Three Seconds: A Temporal Platform for Conscious Activities

      • Ernst Pöppel

      Pages 73-79

   4. Gestalt Recognition and Internal Representation — A Report from the Philosophical Laboratory

      • Olaf Breidbach

      Pages 81-94

   5. Between Natural Disposition and Cultural Masterment of Life — The Cognitive Sciences and Concept of Man in Conflicting Conceptions of Science

      • Peter Janich

      Pages 95-110

   6. Genotype and Phenotype: Genetic and Epigenetic Aspects

      • Ulrich Wolf

      Pages 111-119

   7. Genetic Determinism: The Battle between Scientific Data and Social Image in Contemporary Developmental Biology

      • Scott F. Gilbert

      Pages 121-140

   8. Can we find Human Nature in the Human Genome?

      • Eva M. Neumann-Held

      Pages 141-161

   9. The Nurturing of Natures

      • Susan Oyama

      Pages 163-170

4. The Other Side of the Mirror: Methodological Reconsideration of Human Nature

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 171-171

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   2. The Burden of Proof — On the Impossibility of Technology Assessment for the Human Genome Project

      • Michael Drieschner

      Pages 173-177

   3. Philosophy and the Concept of Technology — On the Anthropological Significance of Technology

      • Armin Grunwald

      Pages 179-194

   4. Human Cultures’ Natures — Critical Considerations and Some Perspectives of Culturalist Anthropology

      • Mathias Gutmann

      Pages 195-240

5. Back Matter

   Pages 241-241

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Modern molecular technology in the so-called life sciences (biology as weil as medicine) allows today to approach and manipulate living beings in ways and to an extent wh ich not too long aga seemed Utopian. The empirical progress promises further and even more radical developments in the future, and it is at least often claimed that this kind of research will have tremendeous etfects on and for all of humanity, for example in the areas of food production, transplantation medicine (including stem cell research and xenotransplantation), (therapeutic) genetic manipulation and (cell-line) cloning (of cell lines or tissues), and of biodiversity conservation-strategies. At least in Western, industrialized countries the development of modern sciences led to a steady increase of human health, well-being and quality of life. However, with the move to make the human body itself an object of scientific research­ interests, the respective scientific descriptions resulted in changes in the image that human beings have of themselves. Scientific progress has led to a startling loss of traditional human self-understanding. This development is in contrast to an under­ standing according to which the question what it means to be "human" is treated in the realm of philosophy. And indeed, a closer look reveals that - without denying the value of scientitic progress - science cannot replace the philosophical approach to anthropological questions.

• Embodiment
• Gestalt
• anthropology
• biology
• cognition
• cognitive science
• determinism
• epistemology
• ethics
• issue
• phenotype
• philosophy

• Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

  Armin Grunwald

• Institut für Philosophie, Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany

  Mathias Gutmann, Eva M. Neumann-Held

Policies and ethics