Diverging definitions of what the human being is or should be polarize the ongoing debate about human enhancement between so-called bioconservatives and transhumanists. This essay seeks to review some of the central issues at stake in this discussion and in a wider sense within current, mostly philosophically oriented approaches that endeavor to understand “human being” or “human nature” in relation to technology. It does so specifically on the basis of a discussion of two recent works that thoroughly grapple with these topics.
FeenbergAndrew. 2002. Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
10.
FloridiLuciano. 2011. The Philosophy of Information. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
11.
FukuyamaFrancis. 2002. Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. New York: Picador.
12.
HarawayDonna. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London, UK: Free Association Books.
13.
HarmanGraham. 2002. Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects. Chicago, IL: Open Court.
14.
HaylesN. Katherine. 1999. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
15.
HeideggerMartin. 1977. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Translated by LovittWilliam. New York: Harper Perennial.
16.
IhdeDon. 1979. Technics and Praxis: A Philosophy of Technology. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Co.
17.
IhdeDon. 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
18.
KappErnst. 1877. Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik. Düsseldorf, Germany: Stern-Verlag Janssen.
19.
KurzweilRay. 2005. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Viking.
20.
LaërtiusDiogenes. 1853. The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Translated by YongeC. D.. London, UK: Henry G. Bohn.
21.
LatourBruno. 1987. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
LatourBruno. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Translated by SheridanAlanLawJohn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
23.
LatourBruno. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Translated by PorterCatherine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
24.
MichelfelderDiane P.McCarthyNatashaGoldbergDavid E., eds. 2013. Philosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
25.
MitchamCarl. 1994. Thinking through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
MoravecHans. 1990. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
27.
MortonTimothy. 2010. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
28.
PickeringAndrew. 1995. The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
29.
SandelMichael J.2007. The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
30.
StrateLance. 2011. On the Binding Biases of Time and Other Essays on General Semantics and Media Ecology. Fort Worth, TX: Institute of General Semantics.
31.
TurkleSherry. 1995. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
32.
TurkleSherry. 2005. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
33.
VarelaFrancisco J.ThompsonEvanRoschEleanor. 1991. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
34.
VerbeekPeter-Paul. 2005. What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design. Translated by CreaseRobert P.. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
35.
VerbeekPeter-Paul. 2011. Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
36.
WinnerLangdon. 1986. The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
