Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Assessing Transhumanist Advocacy of Cognitive Bioenhancement
1. Introduction
2. The (Unsuccessful) Essentialism of Enhancement Critics
3. Transhumanists' Rational Essentialism: An Avowed Enlightenment
Legacy
4. The "Cognitive" in "Cognitive Enhancement": Its Meaning and
Backdrop
5. Why Are Transhumanists So Confident that Cognitive Enhancement
Is Upon Us?
6. Hoisting Transhumanists by Their Own (Mental) Petard
7. Conclusion
2. Why We Should Reject Transhumanists' Entire Lens on the Mind and
Brain
1. Introduction
2. Basic-Emotion and Dual-Process Approaches to Emotions and the
Brain
3. The Superior Lens of Appraisal Theory
4. The Wider Resonance of Scherer's Theory
5. Aristotle's Lens on the Mind
6. The Alignment of Aristotle's Theory with Contemporary
Science
7. Casebeer's "Neo-Aristotelian" Position
8. Conclusion
3. Evaluating the Debate Thus Far over Moral Bioenhancement
1. Setting the Stage
2. What, Specifically, Should Moral Bioenhancement Be Directed
To?
3. Practical Proof of Concept for Moral Bioenhancement?
4. Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Morality
5. An Alternate Focus on Erasing Antisociality
6. Trading Psychological Richness and Freedom for Survival
7. Conclusion
4. Utilitarian Commitments of Transhumanists and Their
Sociopolitical Implications
1. Introduction
2. General Features of Utilitarianism
3. "Health" and "Public Health": Relating Transhumanism to Wider
Trends
4. Transhumanists' Display of Utilitarian Commitments and Their
Sociopolitical Implications
5. Resource Allocation
6. The Moral Permissibility of Using Reproductive Technologies to
Avoid Disease and Disability
7. Conclusion
5. Creating a Higher Breed: Transhumanism and the Prophecy of
Anglo-American Eugenics
1. Introduction
2. The Need for a Fuller Assessment of Transhumanists' Claims about
Earlier Eugenics
3. Human Agency Creates, Then Becomes, the Divine
4. Our Elevation with Respect to "Non-Disease" Conditions
5. In Tandem, Eliminate the Allegedly Deleterious
6. The Great Wingspan of Public Health
7. Shared Utilitarian Commitments
8. Sociopolitical Commitments and Implications
9. Conclusion
6. Transhumanists' Informational View of Being and Knowledge
1. Introduction
2. A Historical Foray
3. Persistence, Problems, Pitfalls
4. Kant versus Transhumanism
5. Conclusion
7. Living Virtuously as a Regulative Ideal
1. Introduction
2. Ancient Greek Ethics
3. We Need Not Be Made to Care about Virtue
4. What Now?
5. What Now? Part Two: Our Civic Scene
6. Perfectionism Suitable for Human Beings: Living Virtuously as a
Regulative Ideal
7. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Susan B. Levin is Roe/Straut Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Smith College. In addition to her numerous publications in bioethics, she has authored two books and many articles in Greek philosophy.
"Transhumanists argue that for human beings to survive in the
future, much less to flourish, we need to technologically overhaul
our evolved natures. In her vigorous, erudite, clear, and
penetrating critique, Susan Levin shows the transhumanist argument
to rest on a superficial philosophical understanding of what it
means to be human and on an equally superficial scientific
understanding of what it is to be an organism. Beyond critique, she
offers an
alternative vision of flourishing that is rooted in Aristotle's
understanding, is improved upon by the American Founders, and is
embodied in the life of Martin Luther King. This book will be of
enormous interest
to anyone who cares to think about what it means to be human in an
age when the problems of our shared existence can seem so dire that
the only solutions left are technological." -- Erik Parens, The
Hastings Center
"Susan Levin's critique of the philosophical literature defending
radical forms of cognitive and moral enhancement is closely
reasoned, thoroughly researched, and deliciously peppery. In
offering sustained challenges to both the scientific and the
philosophical assumptions of her interlocutors, she effectively
sets the agenda for the next chapter in scholarship about our
obligations to future humans." -- Eric T. Juengst, University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill
"Rooted in an optimistic view about human capacities and wielding
strong philosophical and scientific arguments, Susan Levin's
insightful and welcome book reveals transhumanists' tempting but
ultimately failing promises." -- Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Weill
Cornell Medicine
"Global pandemics, climate change, looming geopolitical conflicts
over fresh water and food--it seems the more we should learn how to
change the behavior of humans in nature, the more we recoil and try
to find a way out by changing nature in humans instead. One such
recoil is transhumanism. Posthuman Bliss? offers a searching
critique of biotechnical fabrication of human thought and emotion
on the molecular level. Welcome to bioethical thinking that is
critical, not apologetic. Welcome to classical philosopher Susan B.
Levin's interdisciplinary perspective on the limits of biopower."
-- Bruce Jennings, Vanderbilt University
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