{"product_id":"truly-human-enhancement-isbn-9780262549202","title":"Truly Human Enhancement","description":"\u003cb\u003eA nuanced discussion of human enhancement that argues for enhancement that does not significantly exceed what is currently possible for human beings.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe transformative potential of genetic and cybernetic technologies to enhance human capabilities is most often either rejected on moral and prudential grounds or hailed as the future salvation of humanity. In this book, Nicholas Agar offers a more nuanced view, making a case for moderate human enhancement—improvements to attributes and abilities that do not significantly exceed what is currently possible for human beings. He argues against radical human enhancement, or improvements that greatly exceed current human capabilities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgar explores notions of transformative change and motives for human enhancement; distinguishes between the instrumental and intrinsic value of enhancements; argues that too much enhancement undermines human identity; considers the possibility of cognitively enhanced scientists; and argues against radical life extension. Making the case for moderate enhancement, Agar argues that many objections to enhancement are better understood as directed at the degree of enhancement rather than enhancement itself. Moderate human enhancement meets the requirement of \u003ci\u003etruly\u003c\/i\u003e human enhancement. By radically enhancing human cognitive capabilities, by contrast, we may inadvertently create beings (“post-persons”) with moral status higher than that of persons. If we create beings more entitled to benefits and protections against harms than persons, Agar writes, this will be bad news for the unenhanced. Moderate human enhancement offers a more appealing vision of the future and of our relationship to technology.Series Foreword ix \u003cbr\u003ePreface xi \u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments xv \u003cbr\u003e1 Radical Human Enhancement as a Transformative Change 1 \u003cbr\u003eTransformative Change and \u003ci\u003eInvasion of the Body Snatchers\u003c\/i\u003e 5 \u003cbr\u003eThe Rational Irreversibility of Some Transformative Changes 10 \u003cbr\u003ePositive and Negative Transformative Changes 14 \u003cbr\u003eRadical Enhancement as a Negative Transformative Change 15 \u003cbr\u003e2 Two Ideals of Human Enhancement 17 \u003cbr\u003eDefining Human Enhancement 18 \u003cbr\u003eThe Objective Ideal of Human Enhancement 20 \u003cbr\u003eThe Instrumental and Intrinsic Value of Human Capacities 26 \u003cbr\u003eAnthropocentric Ways of Evaluating Enhancements 27 \u003cbr\u003e3 What Interest Do We Have in Superhuman Feats? 33\u003cbr\u003e The Value of Enhanced Marathons 34 \u003cbr\u003eSimulation and Meaning 36 \u003cbr\u003eIs Human Enhancement the Right Way to Pursue External Goods? 44 \u003cbr\u003eIs the Distinction between Internalizing and Externalizing Enhancement Philosophically Principled? 50 \u003cbr\u003e4 The Threat to Human Identities from Too Much Enhancement 55 \u003cbr\u003eTwo Psychological Accounts of Personal Identity 56 \u003cbr\u003eA Threat to Identity from Life Extension 57 \u003cbr\u003eRadical Enhancement and Autobiographical Memory 60\u003cbr\u003e How Does Autobiographical Memory Work? 62 \u003cbr\u003eAn Asymmetry in Our Attitudes toward Past and Future 66 \u003cbr\u003eThe Tension between Enhancement and Survival 69 \u003cbr\u003eThe Analogy with Childhood 70 \u003cbr\u003eWhy Radical Enhancement Is More Psychologically Disruptive Than Growing Up 75 \u003cbr\u003eThe Regress Problem: The Tragedy of Unending Enhancement 76\u003cbr\u003e5 Should We Enhance Our Cognitive Powers to Better Understand the Universe and Our Place in It? 81 \u003cbr\u003eUnderstanding the Consequences of Cognitive Enhancement for Science 84 \u003cbr\u003eTwo Ways in Which Human Science and Radically Enhanced Science Might Be Fundamentally Different 88 \u003cbr\u003eDifferences in Idealization as Fundamental Differences between Human and Radically Enhanced Science 89 \u003cbr\u003eIdealizations That Enhance the Power of Scientific Explanations 93 \u003cbr\u003eMathematics as a Bridge between Human and Radically Enhanced Science 95 \u003cbr\u003eHuman Science, Radically Enhanced Science, and the Theory of Everything 97 \u003cbr\u003eDawkins and Haldane versus Deutsch on the Limits of Human Science 98 \u003cbr\u003eHow Different Idealizations Generate Different Theories of Everything 102 \u003cbr\u003eValuing Human Science and Radically Enhanced Science 105 \u003cbr\u003eRadical Enhancement Reduces the Intrinsic Value of Our Cognitive Faculties 106 \u003cbr\u003eWhat of Scientific Enhancement’s Instrumental Benefits? 109 \u003cbr\u003e6 The Moral Case against Radical Life Extension 113 \u003cbr\u003eTwo Kinds of Anti-Aging Research 114 \u003cbr\u003eThe SENS Response to the Seven Deadly Things 117 \u003cbr\u003eIs Aging Really a Disease? 120 \u003cbr\u003eThe Testing Problem 122 \u003cbr\u003eWhy WILT (and Other SENS Therapies) Will Require Dangerous Human Trials 126 \u003cbr\u003eWhere to Find Human Guinea Pigs for SENS 129 \u003cbr\u003eWill Volunteer Risk Pioneers Help Out? 131 \u003cbr\u003eEthical Anti-Aging Experiments Not Now, but Some Day? 135 \u003cbr\u003e7 A Defense of Truly Human Enhancement 137 \u003cbr\u003eThe Ubiquity of Human Enhancement 139\u003cbr\u003e Enhancement and Heredity 142 \u003cbr\u003eDefining Genetic Enhancement 143 \u003cbr\u003eThe Interactionist View of Development 144 \u003cbr\u003eSix Ways in Which Genetic Enhancements Could Turn Out to Be More Morally Problematic Than Environmental Enhancements (but, in Fact, Do Not) 146 \u003cbr\u003eThe Ideal of Truly Human Enhancement 154 \u003cbr\u003e8 Why Radical Cognitive Enhancement Will (Probably) Enhance Moral Status 157 \u003cbr\u003eEnhancing Moral Status versus Enhancing Moral Dispositions 158 \u003cbr\u003eWhy It’s So Difficult to Enhance the Moral Status of Persons 159 \u003cbr\u003eA Justification for (Talking about) Moral Statuses 160 \u003cbr\u003eThree Obstacles to Moral Enhancement 161 \u003cbr\u003e(1) The Problem of the Logic of Thresholds 161 \u003cbr\u003e(2) The Problem of How to Improve upon Inviolability 163 \u003cbr\u003e(3) The Problem of Expressing Moral Statuses Higher Than Personhood 164 \u003cbr\u003eThree Attempts to Describe Higher Moral Statuses 165 \u003cbr\u003eDeGrazia’s Dispositionally Superior Post-Persons 167 \u003cbr\u003eMcMahan’s Freer, More Conscious Post-Persons 169 \u003cbr\u003eDouglas’s Enhanced Cooperators 173 \u003cbr\u003eCriteria for Higher Moral Statuses and the Expressibility Problem 174 \u003cbr\u003eWhy Cognitively Enhanced Beings Are Probably Better Than Us at Judging Relative Moral Status 176 \u003cbr\u003eWhy Sufficiently Cognitively Enhanced Beings Will (Probably) Find That Cognitive Differences between Them and Us Mark a Difference in Moral Status 177\u003cbr\u003e Two Hypotheses about Higher Moral Statuses 178 \u003cbr\u003e9 Why Moral Status Enhancement Is a Morally Bad Thing 181 \u003cbr\u003eSome Assumptions 182 \u003cbr\u003eWhy a Change in Relative Moral Status Is Likely to Lead to Significant Harms for Human Mere Persons 184 \u003cbr\u003eWhy Post-Persons Will Probably Identify Many Supreme Opportunities Requiring the Sacrifice of Mere Persons 189 \u003cbr\u003eWhat Complaint Can Mere Persons Make about the Harms They Suffer in Mixed Societies? 190\u003cbr\u003eWhy a Loss of Relative Status Is Unlikely to Be Adequately Compensated 193 \u003cbr\u003e10 A Technological Yet Truly Human Future—as Depicted in Star Trek 195 \u003cbr\u003eNotes 201 \u003cbr\u003eIndex 213Nicholas Agar is Professor of Ethics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of\u003ci\u003e Humanity's End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTruly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense of Limits\u003c\/i\u003e, both published by the MIT Press.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300616098021,"sku":"NP9780262549202","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262549202.jpg?v=1767743002","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/truly-human-enhancement-isbn-9780262549202","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}