In this important new book, Jürgen Habermas -- the most influential philosopher and social thinker in Germany today -- takes up the question of genetic engineering and its ethical implications and subjects it to careful philosophical scrutiny. His analysis is guided by the view that genetic manipulation is bound up with the identity and self-understanding of the species. We cannot rule out the possibility that knowledge of one's own hereditary factors may prove to be restrictive for the choice of an individual's way of life and may undermine the symmetrical relations between free and equal human beings.
In the concluding chapter -- which was delivered as a lecture on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for 2001 -- Habermas broadens the discussion to examine the tension between science and religion in the modern world, a tension which exploded, with such tragic violence, on September 11th.
* Exam copies only available to lecturers for whom the book may be suitable as a course text.
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Jon Turney, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Thoughtful and stimulating."
Times Literary Supplement
"We are fortunate to have Jurgen Habermas writing about bioethics. His intelligence, moral seriousness and intellectual sophistication make him an exemplary figure on the Left"
Mark Blitz, Claremont Review of Books
"A rich introduction to current ethical thinking in Europe and to the relevance of philosophy to society."
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Foreword.
Are There Postmetaphysical Answers to the Question: What is the "Good Life"?.
The Debate on the Ethical Self-Understanding of the Species.
I Moralizing Human Nature?.
II Human Dignity versus the Dignity of Human Life.
III The Embedding of Morality in an Ethics of the Species.
IV The Grown and the Made.
V Natality, the Capacity of Being Oneself, and the Ban on Instrumentalization.
VI The Moral Lmits of Eugenics.
VII Setting the Pace for a Self-instrumentalization of the Species?.
Postscript.
Faith and Knowledge.
Notes.
