Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. Originally trained in history and philosophy of science, Fuller is best known for his foundational work in the field of 'social epistemology', which is concerned with the normative grounds of organized inquiry. 'Social epistemology' is also the name of a quarterly journal that he founded in 1987 as well as the first of his twenty books. He has most recently authored a trilogy relating to the idea of a 'post-' or 'trans-' human future, all published with Palgrave Macmillan: Humanity 2.0: What It Means to Be Human Past, Present and Future (2011), Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0 (2012) and (with Veronika Lipinska) The Proactionary Imperative: A Foundation for Transhumanism (2013).
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The Personhood Beyond the Human conference was organized by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics at Yale University, Yale's Animal Ethics Group and Yale's Technology and Ethics Group.
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Abstract: Against the backdrop of this conference, the UN Declaration definitely shows its age. However, I am less concerned with the prospect of extending human-like rights across species boundaries than with the very idea that humanity could be so clearly demarcated from other potential bearers of personhood, including not only animals but also machines. The 21st century may be a period when 'humanity' understood as a normative category is pulled in two opposing directions: one, genealogically, to extend similar rights, concerns, etc. to those with a common evolutionary past; two, teleologically, to extend similar rights, concerns, etc. to those with a common progressive future.
The former is biased towards biology, the latter towards technology. In that case, it's interesting to ask how such an intuitively clear normative conception of the human has managed to hold sway for 75 years? One sort of answer turns to the immediate historical context of the Second World War, where issues of bodily integrity and territorial sovereignty were very much in focus, which in turn helps to explain the prominence given to the concept of 'dignity' in the Declaration. However, behind this is a deeper metaphysical assumption, associated with the main philosophical spokesperson for the Declaration, the Neo-Thomist Jacques Maritain. The sui generis character of the human being is an assumption of natural law, especially in the Catholic tradition deriving from Aquinas. Arguably, within jurisprudence and moral and political thought more generally, this strand of natural law remains the intellectually most secure ground for upholding human rights.
An implicit acknowledgement of this point is the remarkable 'return to Aristotle' over the past couple of decades among broadly left-leaning philosophers who have become worried that society's value orientation is drifting away from its humanist core (e.g. Sen, Nussbaum, Sandel, Habermas). This point is worth observing at this conference because we should not assume that the intuitions surrounding the value of being human are so secure that we can simply think in terms of extending that value to non-humans. Rather, it may be that 'being human' in Maritain's sense is becoming less salient as a locus of value, which in turn would then explain the relative ease with which we extend rights, concerns, etc. to non-humans.
On December 8, 2013 Steve Fuller spoke on "Is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights Fit For Purpose in the 21st Century?" at the Personhood Beyond the Human conference at Yale University.
Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. Originally trained in history and philosophy of science, Fuller is best known for his foundational work in the field of 'social epistemology', which is concerned with the normative grounds of organized inquiry. 'Social epistemology' is also the name of a quarterly journal that he founded in 1987 as well as the first of his twenty books. He has most recently authored a trilogy relating to the idea of a 'post-' or 'trans-' human future, all published with Palgrave Macmillan: Humanity 2.0: What It Means to Be Human Past, Present and Future (2011), Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0 (2012) and (with Veronika Lipinska) The Proactionary Imperative: A Foundation for Transhumanism (2013).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Personhood Beyond the Human conference was organized by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics at Yale University, Yale's Animal Ethics Group and Yale's Technology and Ethics Group.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: Against the backdrop of this conference, the UN Declaration definitely shows its age. However, I am less concerned with the prospect of extending human-like rights across species boundaries than with the very idea that humanity could be so clearly demarcated from other potential bearers of personhood, including not only animals but also machines. The 21st century may be a period when 'humanity' understood as a normative category is pulled in two opposing directions: one, genealogically, to extend similar rights, concerns, etc. to those with a common evolutionary past; two, teleologically, to extend similar rights, concerns, etc. to those with a common progressive future.
The former is biased towards biology, the latter towards technology. In that case, it's interesting to ask how such an intuitively clear normative conception of the human has managed to hold sway for 75 years? One sort of answer turns to the immediate historical context of the Second World War, where issues of bodily integrity and territorial sovereignty were very much in focus, which in turn helps to explain the prominence given to the concept of 'dignity' in the Declaration. However, behind this is a deeper metaphysical assumption, associated with the main philosophical spokesperson for the Declaration, the Neo-Thomist Jacques Maritain. The sui generis character of the human being is an assumption of natural law, especially in the Catholic tradition deriving from Aquinas. Arguably, within jurisprudence and moral and political thought more generally, this strand of natural law remains the intellectually most secure ground for upholding human rights.
An implicit acknowledgement of this point is the remarkable 'return to Aristotle' over the past couple of decades among broadly left-leaning philosophers who have become worried that society's value orientation is drifting away from its humanist core (e.g. Sen, Nussbaum, Sandel, Habermas). This point is worth observing at this conference because we should not assume that the intuitions surrounding the value of being human are so secure that we can simply think in terms of extending that value to non-humans. Rather, it may be that 'being human' in Maritain's sense is becoming less salient as a locus of value, which in turn would then explain the relative ease with which we extend rights, concerns, etc. to non-humans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B8kcmCpF-olist=SPiJxxjTzuHX1XZgBno2Hz6ykn6XGsRN2Zindex=16