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Prophets of the Posthuman - American Fiction, Biotechnology, and the Ethics of Personhood (Paperback, New)
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Prophets of the Posthuman - American Fiction, Biotechnology, and the Ethics of Personhood (Paperback, New)
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Prophets of the Posthuman provides a fresh and original reading of
fictional narratives that raise the question of what it means to be
human in the face of rapidly developing bioenhancement
technologies. Christina Bieber Lake argues that works by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, George
Saunders, Marilynne Robinson, Raymond Carver, James Tiptree, Jr.,
and Margaret Atwood must be reevaluated in light of their
contributions to larger ethical questions. Drawing on a wide range
of sources in philosophical and theological ethics, Lake claims
that these writers share a commitment to maintaining a category of
personhood more meaningful than that allowed by utilitarian ethics.
Prophets of the Posthuman insists that because technology can never
ask whether we should do something that we have the power to do,
literature must step into that role. Each of the chapters of this
interdisciplinary study sets up a typical ethical scenario
regarding human enhancement technology and then illustrates how a
work of fiction uniquely speaks to that scenario, exposing a realm
of human motivations that might otherwise be overlooked or
simplified. Through the vision of the writers she discusses, Lake
uncovers a deep critique of the ascendancy of personal autonomy as
America's most cherished value. This ascendancy, coupled with
technology's glamorous promises of happiness, helps to shape a
utilitarian view of persons that makes responsible ethical behavior
toward one another almost impossible. Prophets of the Posthuman
charts the essential role that literature must play in the
continuing conversation of what it means to be human in a posthuman
world.
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