Modern and American Dignity: Who We Are as Persons, and What

Modern and American Dignity: Who We Are as Persons, and What That Means for Our Future (Religion and Contemporary Culture Series)
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The horrors of the twentieth century exposed the insufficiency of speaking of human rights. In intending to extinguish whole classes of human beings, the Nazis and Communists did something much worse than violating rights; they aimed to reduce us all to less than who we really are. As political philosopher Peter Augustine Lawler shows in this illuminating book, rights are insecure without some deeper notion of human dignity
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The threats to human dignity remain potent todayâ€”all the more so for being less obvious. Our anxious and aging society has embraced advances in science, technology, and especially biotechnologyâ€”from abortion and embryonic stem-cell research to psychopharmacology, cosmetic surgery and neurology, genetic manipulation, and the detachment of sex from reproduction. But such technical advances can come at the expense of our natural and creaturely dignity, of what we display when we know who we are and what weâ€™re supposed to do. Our lives will only become more miserably confused if we cannot speak confidently about human dignity.

In Modern and American Dignity, Lawler, who served on President George W. Bushâ€™s Council on Bioethics, reveals the intellectual and cultural trends that threaten our confidence in human dignity. The â€œmodernâ€ view of dignity, as he calls it, denies whatâ€™s good about who we are by nature, understanding human dignity to mean moral autonomy (freedom from natureÂ¬Â¬) or productivity (asserting our mastery over nature by devising ingenious transformations). This new understanding of dignity stands at odds with the â€œAmericanâ€ view, which depends on the self-evidence of the truth that we are all created equally unique and irreplaceable. The American view, which is indebted to classical, Christian, and modern sources, understands that free persons are more than merely autonomous or productive beingsâ€”or, for that matter, clever chimps. It sees whatâ€™s good in our personal freedom and our technical mastery over nature, but only in balance with the rest of what makes us whole personsâ€”our dignified performance of our â€œrelationalâ€ duties as familial, political, and religious beings.

Lawler explores these topics with wit and elegance. To make sense of contemporary political and moral debates, Lawler draws on a wide range of thinkers from Socrates to Solzhenitsyn, from Tocqueville to Chesterton, from John Courtney Murray to our philosopher-pope Benedict XVI. In revealing the full dimensions of these debates, he exposes the emptiness of glib pronouncementsâ€”such as President Obamaâ€™sâ€”that our bioethical conflicts can be resolved by a consensus of scientific experts. As the experience of the Bush Bioethics Council demonstrated, there is no scientific consensus about who a human being is.
Country USA
Brand ISI Books
Manufacturer ISI Books
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2010-12-27
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781935191896

Country	USA
Brand	ISI Books
Manufacturer	ISI Books
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2010-12-27
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781935191896

Modern and American Dignity: Who We Are as Persons, and What That Means for Our Future (Religion and Contemporary Culture Series)

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