Humans, Animals, and Environment: Debates about Technology and Nature
May 15-19, 2012
at the University of Oklahoma
Technology, a modification of nature for the purpose of
facilitating further modification of nature, is celebrated as one of the hallmarks
of human nature. At the same time, many
people are increasingly concerned about the depth and extent to which humans
can now modify nature: they are concerned, for example, about the human-caused
extinction of plants and animals, about the introduction of genetically
engineered crops and livestock, and the biotechnological enhancement of human
beings. This seminar will explore several philosophical, moral, and political
issues that are connected to concerns about changing nature: How can we
identify a “natural” state of affairs in a world that is already heavily
altered? Why should leaving nature alone be considered morally valuable? Can
moral concerns about nature be taken up into public discourse and public
policy-making—or should government strive to be neutral on such matters? The seminar
will explore these issues in the context of debates about environmental
preservation, agricultural biotechnology, synthetic biology, and human
enhancement.
Books and Readings provided by OSLEP
Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future by James Hughes
Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan
Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness a report by the President’s Council on Bioethics
The Ideal of Nature: Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment Gregory Kaebnick, ed.
Reading Packet
Gregory E. Kaebnick is a Research Scholar, the Director of the Editorial Department, and editor of the Hastings Center Report and Bioethics Forum. He is interested in questions about the kinds of values that figure in thinking about new biotechnology, and particularly in the way people think about nature and human nature. This work has evolved out of earlier work on the nature and status of moral values and the structure of moral deliberation.
Dr. Kaebnick is currently leading the research project, “The Ideal of Nature: Appeals to Nature in Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment.” In Genetic Ties and the Future of the Family, he explored the ramifications of genetic paternity testing for the parent-child relationship. In the recently concluded Crafting Tools for Public Conversation about Behavioral Genetics, he addressed the implications of behavioral genetics for human freedom.
He received his Ph.D. (1998) and MS (1994) in philosophy from the University of Minnesota and his BA in religion from Swarthmore College (1986).