In this thesis I analyze and problematize Francis Fukuyama's position on posthumanism, largely expressed in his 2002 book Our Posthuman Future. In it he warns against the likely negative outcome of a potential biotechnological revolution, which could enable easy access to interfering with human genome via practices such as genetic modification or human cloning. Fukuyama's major assumption is that all members of society must meet some limited standards of humanity in order to be equal, because if people acquire different levels of artificially altered "human natures," the outcome will be stratification, irrecuperable inequality and perhaps even class warfare. For this reason, Fukuyama calls for a pre-emptive regulation of genetic manipulation so as to avoid a "posthuman future." I contrast this theory with a selection of transhumanist and feminist theorists as well as with examples from fiction, namely the trilogy Lilith's Brood (1987-1989) by Octavia Butler and the novel Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro. Drawing on these sources I conclude that Fukuyama's position is harmfully exclusionary and divisive; and also counter- productive in the sense that in his pursuit of securing freedom and equality he renders potential posthuman subjects fundamentally inferior, thus principally defeating his...

Are we cyborgs or humans? This question is at the heart of this investigation, and the implications of it are all around us. In Christian theology, humans are seen as uniquely made in the image of God (imago dei). This has been taken to mean various things, but broadly, it suggests an understanding of humans as somehow discrete from, and elevated above, other creatures in how they resemble God. Cyborgs mark a provocative attempt to challenge such notions, especially in the work of Donna Haraway, whose influential ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ (1991) elaborated a way of understanding cyborgs as figures for the way we live our lives not as discrete or elevated, but as deeply hybridised and involved in complex ways with technologies, as well as with other beings. Significantly, Haraway uses the cyborg to critique notions of the human rooted in theological anthropology and anthropogeny: the cyborg was not created in Eden. This assertion is the starting point of my investigation of cyborgs and humans in theological anthropology. Analysis of this position is broken down into three key concepts throughout the investigation that form the three main parts of the structure: (1) What is the significance of Eden, specifically as a point of origin? What ideas do we inherit from Genesis mythologies, and how do they influence our multitudinous understandings of not only humans, but also cyborgs, that range from the Terminator, to astronauts, to hospital patients? What does it mean to say that the cyborg cannot recognise Eden or even dream of the possibility of return?(2) If the cyborg was not created in Eden, then is it still to be considered as creaturely? How does this figure tessellate into, or challenge, notions of human nature and sin in the absence of an origin or teleology in a Garden? What commentaries of the human as created in God’s image can we compare this to, and how do all of these readings bear on how we see ourselves and technologies? (3) More constructively, given that the cyborg amalgamates the organic and the mechanic, and discusses hybridity, how might this be appropriated by theological anthropology? What does it mean to say that we are hybrids? From these questions, I reflect on tensions between the cyborg and the human, and make suggestions for a theological appropriation of the cyborg figure that takes heed of the emphasis on hybridity by applying it to notions of Eden and imago dei. The overarching aim is to decentre and destabilise the human, and to refigure it within its broader networks that are inclusive of other creatures, technologies, and God.

Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / The queer natural law is an ethical framework at the intersection of queer theory, queer theology, and the natural law ethical tradition largely used in Roman Catholic moral theology. As a framework, queer natural law adopts the eudaimonist, realist, and teleological emphases of the natural law virtue ethics tradition exemplified by Thomas Aquinas and restored by revisionist natural lawyers, and it refines the operations of these normative emphases through queer theory’s critical investigation of conceptual normativity. Conceived as a dynamic dialectical enterprise, queer theory offers to the natural law tradition a toolset for a more comprehensive assessment of human nature, specifically by taking a critical look at the operation of heteronormativity in normative frameworks. Symbiotically, the natural law tradition offers to queer theory a scaffold for conceiving of an ethics based in equality and nondiscrimination that allows queer theory’s ethical impulses to avoid postmodernity’s tendency towards circularity in ethical reasoning, precisely by grounding queer theory’s ethical motivations in a participatory discourse based in universal human goods. Using sexuality as a test case, this dissertation proceeds in four chapters. In the first, the notion of a queer natural law is explained in more detail. In the second, an account of human flourishing compatible with the queer natural law is articulated. In the third, a review of two natural law accounts of sexuality—magisterial and revisionist—is conducted. In the fourth and final chapter, differences between a revisionist natural law account of sexuality and a queer natural law account of sexuality are explored, defending the queer natural law thesis that the telos of sex is inter/personal pleasure. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

The thesis deals with suicide and topics related to it in the concept of Chrysippus of Soloi and St. Augustine. Despite the differences in their conclusions, both discuss this phenomenon in connection withdissatisfaction with life. They are based on the assumption of the initial inadequacy of human nature and the possibility of attaining happiness through its perfection. Chrysippus believes that under certain conditions suicide can become a reasonable act. The development of rationality allows one to see events from a universal perspective and to free oneself from dependence on external objects that produce passions including adherence to life. The decision to voluntarily end one's life is based on an insight into the course of nature and what is natural to man. Thanks to this knowledge, suicide becomes a virtuous act and a manifestation of harmony with nature. For Augustine, on the other hand, suicide isan expression of human weakness, an inability to cope with the miseries of life and a cowardly escape from suffering. However, he considers suffering to be an integral part of life, hiding in itself the possibility of moral remedy. Suicide manifests human egoism, which is the cause of the original sin, the degradation of the human nature and an barrier on the road to happiness and salvation.

Man as homo moralis in Thomas Aquinas and according to it in evolutionary psychology In my thesis I want to compare two different views on human nature: The view of a Christian, enhanced by the theological ethics, and the view by a non-believer who deals with the origin and goal of the human life. These two points of view will be represented by the philosophy and theology of Thomas Aquinas on one hand and the evolutionary ethincs on the other hand. My goal is especially to point out the the difference between two views on the human being: typically religious one and typically secular one, and their opinion on the origin and purpose of it. I will try to answer the question on existence of such field, which is not explorable by tools of natural (evolutionary) ethics and which points to the "theological" dimension of human nature. On the other hand I will ask whether the traditional concepts of human nature can get by the exploration of the modern science and whether they can be enhanced by it. The outcome of my work should finally be above all practical: how to argue in behalf of the Christian point of view, dealing with the topics of bioethics or Human Rights as general. Keywords Human nature, finality, virtues, freedom, human dignity, Thomas Aquinas, evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics,...

Virtú has long been associated with manly traits like strength, cunning, valor, and ruthlessness. Much has been debated among these lines, whereas others have taken the approach of letting virtú and its meaning be undetermined. In this thesis a comparison between the different theoretical and practical meanings of Machiavelli’s teachings are discussed, with the conclusion being that there might be a case for virtú as being similar to showmanship, alternatively, an ingrained part of human nature. This conclusion is derived from comparison of different sources regarding Machiavelli’s works, with the Prince and the Discourses as the core of the interpretation. The flexibility of virtú and its circumstantial nature creates, through the arguments in this thesis, a basis for virtú as something other than a trait to have or to be developed. That being said, I am cautious to finalize a meaning to virtú, because of the nature of the word and its meaning. It has been interpreted to fit different subjective realities ever since its release, whereas this thesis might be found to do the same. Virtú and Machiavelli is hard to fully grasp, which makes it all the more interesting to try to derive meaning where none might be found.

PhDr. Tomáš Kunca The Humanist Virtuoso: Beginnings, Idea and Illustration of Hume's experimental philosophical anthropology in Treatise of Human Nature UK FHS, Praha 2013 Thesis introduces a concept of "The Humanist Virtuoso" as distinctive feature reflecting Hume's effort to introduce an idea of experimental philosophical anthropology based on study of human nature and manifested in his A Treatise of Human Nature. Concept is justified by three steps, through analysis of the beginnings of Hume's philosophy, explication of his "science of man" idea in Treatise and illustration of this idea in action, as appears in analysis of passions (Book 2). The beginnings of Hume's way to experimental philosophical anthropology are explained thorough interpretation of historical facts connected with his early study at College of Edinburgh. First meetings with culture of science ( both British Christian tradition of experimental philosophy and Newtonian mathematical philosophy) are considered as particularly important. Detailed analysis of pre-Treatise letters (the Letter to Physician and to Michael Ramsey) is provided to make explicit the beginnings of his "science of man" idea, turn to study of human nature. Castration of Treatise is observed and discussed via analysis of his letter to Home (1737). The second...

Name: Daniel Janoško Title: Capacity for Suicide and its Consequences for the Conception of Human Nature Abstract The aim of the thesis is, first, to analyze the ability to deliberately end one's own life, which, assuming its human exclusivity within the animal kingdom as well as its universality within the human species, should provide a rich source for revealing some already known and some potentially entirely novel aspects of human nature and condition. The capacity for suicide is therefore analysed not from the dominating position of moral philosophy, but rather from the perspective of philosophical anthropology. Based on both the philosophical (Scheler, Heidegger, Landsberg, Jaspers, etc.) and empirical anthropological literature, we attempt to answer the question of human exclusivity of the capacity for suicide. The intention of this analysis is, then, to find the essential aspects of this exclusivity from which practical consequences can be drawn for further philosophical conceptualizations of human nature. The most crucial of these appears to be the awareness of one's finality. A detailed examination of such awareness then reveals other aspects of human nature and condition, such as the specifically human communal way of living, the human's effort to endure, both materially and spiritually, in the...

This study is a description and interpretation of talk about hunting. The study is based on data gathered from in-depth interviews with twenty-four hunters in the United States who did not become hunters until adulthood. A single overarching research question guides the study: How do people create and use discourses of hunting? The study is situated within the ethnography of communication research program and, more specifically, within the framework of cultural discourse analysis. The study employs cultural discourse analysis methods and concepts to describe and develop interpretations of how participants render hunting symbolically meaningful, and of what beliefs and values underlie such meanings. The major descriptive findings include recurrent patterns of talk concerning: connecting with land and nature, spirit, other people, human ancestry, and human nature; taking responsibility in ecological, ethical, and health-related ways, both through hunting and through other practices such as gardening; being engaged, present, alert, excited, and challenged; killing for appropriate reasons, in appropriate ways, and with appropriate feeling; and living and acting in response to a modern world that diminishes human experience, brutalizes animals, and harms the natural world. The major interpretive findings include hunting being linked to other practices such as gardening, and being spoken of as a deeply meaningful pursuit practiced for the feelings of connection, engagement, and right relationship that it fosters, and as a physically and spiritually healthful remedy for the negative effects of modern living and of industrial food systems. This research demonstrates that hunting and talk about hunting can be underpinned by common beliefs and values shared by hunters, non-hunters, and anti-hunters. This research also suggests that adult-onset hunters and their discursive practices may be of unique value to wildlife agencies and conservation organizations, to other adult onset-hunters, and to both scholarly and public understandings of—and dialogues about—the practice of hunting.

PhDr. Tomáš Kunca The Humanist Virtuoso: Beginnings, Idea and Illustration of Hume's experimental philosophical anthropology in Treatise of Human Nature UK FHS, Praha 2013 Thesis introduces a concept of "The Humanist Virtuoso" as distinctive feature reflecting Hume's effort to introduce an idea of experimental philosophical anthropology based on study of human nature and manifested in his A Treatise of Human Nature. Concept is justified by three steps, through analysis of the beginnings of Hume's philosophy, explication of his "science of man" idea in Treatise and illustration of this idea in action, as appears in analysis of passions (Book 2). The beginnings of Hume's way to experimental philosophical anthropology are explained thorough interpretation of historical facts connected with his early study at College of Edinburgh. First meetings with culture of science ( both British Christian tradition of experimental philosophy and Newtonian mathematical philosophy) are considered as particularly important. Detailed analysis of pre-Treatise letters (the Letter to Physician and to Michael Ramsey) is provided to make explicit the beginnings of his "science of man" idea, turn to study of human nature. Castration of Treatise is observed and discussed via analysis of his letter to Home (1737). The second...