The Future of Human Nature (ePub)

Recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research are
raising complex ethical questions concerning the legitimate scope
and limits of genetic intervention. As we begin to contemplate the
possibility of intervening in the human genome to prevent diseases,
we cannot help but feel that the human species might soon be able
to take its biological evolution in its own hands. 'Playing
God' is the metaphor commonly used for this
self-transformation of the species, which, it seems, might soon be
within our grasp.

In this important new book, Jürgen Habermas - the
most influential philosopher and social thinker in Germany today
- takes up the question of genetic engineering and its
ethical implications and subjects it to careful philosophical
scrutiny. His analysis is guided by the view that genetic
manipulation is bound up with the identity and self-understanding
of the species. We cannot rule out the possibility that knowledge
of one's own hereditary factors may prove to be restrictive
for the choice of an individual's way of life and may
undermine the symmetrical relations between free and equal human
beings.

In the concluding chapter - which was delivered as a
lecture on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for
2001 - Habermas broadens the discussion to examine the
tension between science and religion in the modern world, a tension
which exploded, with such tragic violence, on September 11th.