The Hope and Despair of Human Bioenhancement

Product Description


The Hope and Despair of Human Bioenhancement is a virtual dialogue between Transhumanists of the "Oxford School" and the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. Set in the key of hope and despair, it considers whether or not the transhumanist interpretation of human limitations is correct, and whether their confidence in the methods of human enhancement, especially through biotechnology, corresponds to genuine hope. To this end, it investigates the philosophical foundations of transhumanism in modernity's rejection of metaphysics, the triumph of positivism, and the universalism of the theory of evolution, which when applied to anthropology becomes the materialist reduction of the human person. Ratzinger calls into question this absolutization of positive reason and its limitation of hope to what human beings can produce, naming it a pathology of reason, a mutilation of human dignity, and a facade of a world without hope. In its place, he offers a richer concept of hope that acknowledges our contingence and limitations.


Review


"This work evinces a masterly interplay of themes in philosophy, science, and theology. Paschal Corby brings into juxtaposition the radically different understandings of human nature to be found in transhumanist publications on the one side and Christian thought on the other. He compellingly argues that transhumanist thought is a symptom of the materialist reduction of human nature to chemicals, a denial of human freedom, and a tragic withering of hope in the capacity for transcendence."
--Tracey Rowland, University of Notre Dame (Australia)
"Who would not want to listen to a dialogue between the unscrupulous Oxford transhumansts and the greatest Catholic thinker alive? Paschal Corby's book presents a concise, yet rigorous, confrontation over the Promethean potentiality of biotechnology and on the future of humanity, something which vitally concerns us all."
--Livio Melina, Professor of Fundamental Moral Theology, Pontifical "John Paul II" Theological Institute, Rome


About the Author


Paschal M. Corby OFM Conv., MBBS (Hons), BTheol (Hons), STL, STD, is a Catholic priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual in Australia. His doctoral thesis, which forms the content of this book, was awarded the 2017 Sub Auspiciis Award for the publication of outstanding dissertations from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Rome. He currently teaches bioethics at the Institute's Melbourne campus.