Phronetic genetics: Democracy and the politics of emerging technologies

Abstract

Balancing technological innovation with social values remains an important, if understudied, topic for contemporary political theory. This paper explores the question of how clever but disruptive technologies like the gene-editing tool CRISPR can solve challenging technical problems while adhering to democratic values and governance. Like most tools, CRISPR can enhance human life or diminish it. We therefore need a way of distinguishing between virtuous and vicious technological goals. In short, we need to make CRISPR what I call a phronetic technology: a tool that is developed and deployed toward achieving the social good in ways consistent with democratic values. Honoring democratic values demands broad-based, ongoing public deliberation about how technological innovation contributes to social welfare. I turn to Aristotle to inform that deliberation. Aristotle's distinction between phronēsis (practical wisdom) and the related but problematic quality deinos (cleverness) usefully captures the difference between phronetic technologies and their merely clever alternatives. By showing how phronēsis both aligns cleverness with social values and encourages civic engagement on questions of technological development, I argue that Aristotle offers a middle path between reckless innovation and reactionary conservatism.