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The Disease of Being Human

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Mythologies of Transhumanism
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Abstract

This chapter examines the increasing integration of the radical human enhancement project into the cultural mainstream. Transhumanism leads the way by pointing out the deficiencies of our nature and presenting radical human enhancement as the urgently needed cure. Tracing this particular self-conception (called the “enhancement-therapy identity thesis”), and how it is reflected in our culture, Hauskeller looks at the two main supporting arguments, namely the moral argument (John Harris), and the biological argument (Allen Buchanan), followed by examples of public discourse that rely on or otherwise make use of the enhancement-therapy identity thesis. The chosen examples cover the four main areas of human enhancement: emotional enhancement, cognitive enhancement, moral enhancement, and life extension.

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Hauskeller, M. (2016). The Disease of Being Human. In: Mythologies of Transhumanism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39741-2_7

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