Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
diversity and human recency. Proctor's conclusion is to endorse “hominid
bushiness,” a recognition of the variation in the evolution of hominids,
and that “the prehistory of tools, bodies, and beliefs will forever remain
a fertile field for projection and wishful thinking.” In a concluding
note, Proctor suggests that humanness is a linguistic concept, opening
the possibility that other language-using creature or machines might be
considered human. But at this stage in the development of our under-
standing of the relationship between human nature and genetic knowl-
edge, the tale of hominid bushiness is primarily a cautionary one about
exclusion.
While Proctor's chapter is a call to caution about bold claims regard-
ing the nature of our physical inheritance, Tom Shannon's is a more
aggressive argument against using materialist reductionism to limit the
range of discussion about human nature. He finds this error in two of
the major voices in the current literature on genetics and human nature:
Richard Dawkins and E. O. Wilson. A theologian, Shannon's contention
is that reality itself is ambiguous enough to be open to the possibilities
of transcendence that go beyond the arguments of scientific materialism,
but do not stand independent of contemporary genetic information.
There are three foundation stones for his argument. He is concerned with
scientific reductionism and its contrast with the larger question of the
relationship between the parts and the whole. He uses the method of
ressourcement, part of the Roman Catholic tradition of reappropriating
concepts and ideas from the tradition for contemporary discussions.
Finally, he is concerned with the limitations of our current genetic knowl-
edge and the temptation to overestimate the clarity our limited knowl-
edge has provided us, a point of significant concern with regard to
sociobiology. In particular, Shannon focuses on John Duns Scotus's dis-
tinction between
affectio commodi
and
affectio justitiae
to illustrate the
openness of human nature to transcendence, particularly its ability to
transcend itself as part of nature. Shannon contrasts this approach to the
difficulties Dawkins and Wilson experience when attempting to explain
altruistic behavior and, more generally, our ability to resist the apparent
genetic-based tendencies of our nature.
For Duns Scotus,
affectio commodi
is a drive rooted in the nature of
the individual entity “to seek his perfection and happiness in all he does.”
Shannon identifies this with Dawkins's and Wilson's “genetic selfish-
