ABSTRACT

Humans are unique in their ability to reflect on themselves. Recently a number of scholars have pointed out that human self-conceptions have a history. Ideas of human nature in the West have always been shaped by the interplay of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. The fast pace of developments in the latter two spheres (neuroscience, genetics, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering) call for fresh reflections on what it means, now, to be human, and for theological and ethical judgments on how we might shape our own destiny in the future. The leading scholars in this book offer fresh contributions to the lively quest for an account of ourselves that does justice to current developments in theology, science, technology, and philosophy.

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

part II|68 pages

The Emergence of the Distinctively Human

part III|94 pages

The Future of Human Identity

chapter 9|14 pages

Distributed Identity

Human Beings as Walking, Thinking Ecologies in the Microbial World

chapter 10|18 pages

Without a Horse

On Being Human in an Age of Biotechnology

chapter 12|24 pages

Can We Enhance the Imago Dei?