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66Hans Jonas, Transhumanism, and What it Means to Live a «Genuine Human Life»Revue Philosophique De Louvain 117 (2): 291-310. 2019.In The Imperative of Responsibility, published in German in 1979 and in English five years later, Hans Jonas introduced a new moral imperative for the technological age that runs as follows : «Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life». This article has two objectives: firstly to clarify what it means to live, in Jonas’ sense, a genuine human life, and secondly whether we can still live such a life if we radically enhance ourselves the way tr…Read more
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44Phenomenology and Teleology: Hans Jonas's Philosophy of LifeEnvironmental Values 26 (3): 297-315. 2017.Although Hans Jonas's theory of responsibility has been influential on continental European environmental ethics, his philosophy of life, which seeks to rehabilitate a teleological account of living beings and describe their differing degrees of ‘existential freedom’, is less well-known. In this article, I reconstruct the stages of Jonas's phenomenological account and address the key criticisms levelled at it. I argue that although Jonas's theory is flawed by internal contradictions, these may b…Read more
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40The Ethics and Ontology of Synthetic Biology: a Neo-Aristotelian PerspectiveNanoEthics 14 (1): 43-55. 2020.This article is concerned with two interrelated questions: what, if anything, distinguishes synthetic from natural organisms, and to what extent, if any, creating the former is of moral significance. These are ontological and ethical questions, respectively. As the title indicates, I address both from a broadly neo-Aristotelian perspective, i.e. a teleological philosophy of life and virtue ethics. For brevity’s sake, I shall not argue for either philosophical position at length, but instead hope…Read more
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38Responsibility in Practice: Hans Jonas as Environmental Political TheoristEthics, Policy and Environment 21 (2): 229-245. 2018.ABSTRACTHans Jonas’ philosophy of responsibility is a major contribution to environmental ethics and political theory, but aspects of it have proven controversial. Jonas’ critics, in particular Richard Wolin, have argued that his thought is deeply reactionary. By contrast, Nathan Dinneen has sought to show that Jonas’ apparent eco-authoritarianism is misunderstood. I argue here that Dinneen’s interpretation is too probably too generous, but also that Wolin’s wholesale critique is fundamentally m…Read more
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30Hans Jonas: Life, Technology and the Horizons of ResponsibilityBloomsbury Academic. 2020.Hans Jonas (1903–1993) was one of the most important German-Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. A student of Martin Heidegger and close friend of Hannah Arendt, Jonas advanced the fields of phenomenology and practical ethics in ways that are just beginning to be appreciated in the English-speaking world. Drawing here on unpublished and newly translated material, Lewis Coyne brings together for the first time in English Jonas's philosophy of life, ethic of responsibility, political theory, p…Read more
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30An Unfit Future: Moral Enhancement and Technological HarmRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83 351-370. 2018.This essay addresses two aspects of Persson and Savulescu's case for moral enhancement: 1) the precise technological nature of ultimate harm, particularly as it applies to the ecological crisis, and 2) what is at stake in the solution they propose. My claim is that Persson and Savulescu's treatment of both issues is inadequate: the ecological crisis is a more complex phenomenon than they suppose, and more is at stake in moral enhancement than they claim. To make my case I draw on the work of Han…Read more
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24Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2018.The papers collected in this volume examine moral enhancement: the idea that we should morally improve people through the manipulation of their biological constitution. Whether moral enhancement is possible or even desirable is highly controversial. Proponents argue that it is necessary if we are to address various social ills and avert catastrophic climate change. Detractors have raised a variety of concerns, some of a practical nature and others of principle. Perhaps most fundamentally, howeve…Read more
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23What is Phenomenological Bioethics? A Critical Appraisal of Its Ends and MeansJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 48 (2): 170-183. 2023.In recent years the phenomenological approach to bioethics has been rejuvenated and reformulated by, among others, the Swedish philosopher Fredrik Svenaeus. Building on the now-relatively mainstream phenomenological approach to health and illness, Svenaeus has sought to bring phenomenological insights to bear on the bioethical enterprise, with a view to critiquing and refining the “philosophical anthropology” presupposed by the latter. This article offers a critical but sympathetic analysis of S…Read more
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IntroductionIn Michael Hauskeller & Lewis Coyne (eds.), Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives, Cambridge University Press. 2018.
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An Unfit Future : Moral Enhancement and Technological HarmIn Michael Hauskeller & Lewis Coyne (eds.), Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives, Cambridge University Press. 2018.
Bristol, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Phenomenology |
Environmental Ethics |
Biomedical Ethics |
Existentialism |
Areas of Interest
Phenomenology |
Environmental Ethics |
Biomedical Ethics |
Existentialism |