Biotechnology and Mythology
Is There a (Bio-)Ethical Dilemma?
Abstract
Biotechnology and mythology. Is there a (bio-)ethical dilemma? Biotechnology has, in a sense, become a demiurgic art today. It appears as a testimony to an important transformation, which manifests itself in the fact that practices formerly considered merely magical have turned into specialised crafts. Using the contemporary example of the creation of genetic chimeras, we can say that biotechnology has begun to reduce formerly imaginative constructs describing a reality belonging even to the realm of the sacred to the level of reality. Therefore, do not the natural sciences today also play a certain servile role in the process of the new sacralisation of reality? Do not the people who create them aspire to be inhabitants of Olympus? What, then, will be the nature of the ethics of the “people-gods”? Is ethics really out of step with evolving technology, or should it rather never reach – if it retains the criterion of common sense – the ceiling of irrationality represented by contemporary ideologies imbued with neo-Gnostic thinking, such as transhumanism. Perhaps the problem lies not in the inadequacy of ethics, but rather in the over-ideologisation of modern science.
References
Bostrom Nick, Superinteligencja. Scenariusze, strategie, zagrożenia, tłum. Dorota Konowrocka-Sawa (Gliwice: Helion, 2016).
Braidotti Rosi, Po człowieku, tłum. Joanna Bednarek, Agnieszka Kowalczyk (Warszawa: PWN, 2014).
Delsol Chantal, Nienawiść do świata. Totalitaryzmy i ponowoczesność, tłum. Marek Chojnacki (Warszawa: PAX, 2017).
Doudna Jennifer A., Sternberg Samuel H., Edycja genów. Władza nad ewolucją, tłum. Adam Tuz (Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka, 2018).
Kobyliński Andrzej, O możliwości zbudowania etyki nihilistycznej. Propozycja Gianniego Vattima (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo UKSW, 2014).
Kurzweil Ray, Nadchodzi osobliwość. Kiedy człowiek przekroczy granice biologii (Warszawa: Kurhaus, 2016).
Lindenberg Grzegorz, Ludzkość poprawiona (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Otwarte, 2018).
Muszala Adam, Encyklopedia bioetyki (Radom: Polwen, 2009).
Osiński Grzegorz, Transhumanizm. Retiarius contra secutor (Toruń: Wydawnictwo WSKSiM, 2018).
Ostrowicki Michał (Sidey Myoo), Ontoelektronika (Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2013).
Piore Adam, Magia bioinżynierii, tłum. Grzegorz Ciecieląg (Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2019).
Winniczuk Lidia, Mały słownik kultury antycznej (Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1968).
Ziółkowski Michał, Pokonać śmierć czy zmienić człowieka (Warszawa: Von Borowiecky, 2021).
Czarnecki Michał J., „Człowiek wobec świata. Gnoza nowożytna Erica Voegelina a gnostycyzm antyczny – próba porównania”, Dialogi polityczne. Polityka i Religia 8 (2007): 155–167.
More Max, The Proactionary Principle, w: The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the racjonalnych decyzji wprowadzania nowych technologii. Zdaniem transhumanistów jakikolwiek zakaz wprowadzania zasady proaktywności będzie jedynie powiększał cierpienie świata. Por. Max More, „The Proactionary Principle”, w: The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future, red. Max More, Natasha Vita-More (Chichester UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 258–267.
Human Future, red. Max More, Natasha Vita-More (Chichester UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 258–267.
Pawlak Ada F., Cyberimmortalizm. Cyfrowy postczłowiek jako transhumanistyczny projekt XXI wieku, w: Człowiek a technologia cyfrowa – przegląd aktualnych doniesień, red. Paulina Szymczyk, Kamil Maciąg (Lublin: Tygiel, 2018), 7–26.
Pawlak Ada F., Transhumanizm jako projekt metafizyczny XXI wieku. Techgnoza i Homo Deus w erze duchowych maszyn, w: Pluralizm religijny i odmiany ezoteryzmu, red. Andrzej Wójtowicz, Wojciech Klimski (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo UKSW, 2019).
Elizade Elizabeth, Elon Musk says Neuralink could start implanting chips in human brains ‘later this year’, https://nypost.com/2021/02/03/elon-musk-neuralink (dostęp: 30.11. 2022).
Copyright (c) 2024 Ignatianum University in Cracow
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Yearbook only accepts materials for publication that are free of all conflicts of interest, and that in no way involve conflicts over authorship, copyright, etc. The Editors will take action against any cases of plagiarizing, ghostwriting1, guest/honorary authorship2, etc. Where co-authored work is concerned, the Author listed first is expected to take responsibility for the submission, and is required to make clear the contributions of all of the Co-Authors involved. In the event of the publication owing its existence to funding dedicated to this purpose, this fact should be made clear: e.g. in any note of thanks/acknowledgement, or in a footnote, etc. Explicit notification should be given of any form of reprinting, with the appropriate evidence of permission to publish being furnished as required. Any impropriety on the part of Authors/Reviewers risks exposing them to appropriate responses from the relevant institutions.
______
1 This term refers to instances of a person who has made an essential contribution being omitted from the list of authors, or from notes conveying gratitude and/or acknowledgement.
2 This occurs when a person who has made either an insignificant contribution or no contribution at all nevertheless appears on the list of authors.
