In the shadow of progress : being human in the age of technology / Eric Cohen.
Book | Encounter Books | 2008 | 1st ed.

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Edition
1st ed.
Description
181 pages ; 24 cm.
Series
New Atlantis books
New Atlantis Books.
Note
"New Atlantis Books."
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-175) and index.
Contents
Part I: Science and the human prospect -- The spirit of modern science -- The human difference -- Part II: The ethics of progress -- Bioethics in wartime -- The embryo question -- Our genetic condition -- The commerce of the body -- A Jewish-Catholic bioethics? -- Part III: From generation to generation -- Why have children? -- In whose image shall we die?
Summary
"In the Shadow of Progress is a deep and lively reflection on the moral challenges of the technological age. Eric Cohen, a leading voice in America's bioethics debates, offers a tour of the complex dilemmas at the intersection of science and morality, moving seamlessly from contemporary subjects like stem cells and evolution lo classic texts like the Hebrew Bible and Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis."" "Why are the wealthiest people in human history the least likely to want children? What kind of civilization will we become if we seek cures for the sick by destroying human embryos? What is lost when we relieve human sadness by altering the chemical balance of the brain, or enhance human performance by altering the biological workings of the body? In this age of scientific wonders, have we forgotten what sets human beings apart from everything else in the natural world? Can the fruits of modern science ever satisfy our deepest longings - for love, for virtue, and for transcendence?" "In the end, Cohen argues, there are no easy answers. Our challenge is to live simultaneously with gratitude and fear, pride and shame, sobriety and hope, in this new age of technology."--Jacket.
Subject
Other Form:
Online version: Cohen, Eric, 1977- In the shadow of progress. 1st ed. New York : Encounter Books, 2008 (OCoLC)944205857
ISBN
9781594032080 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
1594032084 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
Extras
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