Sunday, January 1, 2017

Genetic Engineering and Ethics

Nietzsche could not have anticipated the technological advances that have facilitated the possibility of genetic engineering as a means to the creation of superior humans.  However, he does anticipate one of the controversies surrounding it.  While one objection to what is now best known as a "GMO"--genetically modified organism--is that its potential harms remain inadequately diagnosed, another is more generally glossed as "Ethical questions".  But, the latter is precisely addressed by his 'Revaluation of All Values'.  For, those "questions" express a Theological orientation, often presented as absolute, according to which human Techne is conceived as a corruption of 'natural', aka created by a deity, processes.  At minimum, he refutes the Absolutism implicit in the phrase 'Ethical questions', and arguably exposes the unhealthful consequences of adherence to practices typically advocated by it.

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