Dr. des. Björn Sydow
Member of the research training group 'Bioethics'
E-Mail: bjsydow@gmx.de
Post-Doc Project
Biomorality and the respect for the natural ends of human beings
My project deals with the intuition that we are morally obligated to respect the intrinsic ends of human beings as living beings, and that this obligation leads to moral restrictions for biotechnological enhancement practices. I want to elaborate this intuition in three steps:
First, I will examine if and how it could be reasonable to ascribe natural ends to human beings, i.e. ends which are independent of the desires a person has immediate knowledge of. I try to develop a convincing notion of the intrinsic ends of human beings against the background of contemporary neo-aristotelian approaches that try to conceive of human beings as living beings (e.g. Michael Thompson).
Secondly, I will map out and defend a conception of practical reason that opens up the possibility to justify the intuition in question. This step is necessary as many conceptions of practical reason inhibit this justification because of the fundamental status they ascribe to the conscious desires of reasonable persons. So I will deal with theories that dispute this fundamental role of desires (e.g. John McDowell).
In the last step, I will try to argue for our moral obligation to respect the intrinsic ends of human beings within the developed framework of pracitcal reason, and finally, I will carve out the moral conseqeuences with reference to concrete biotechnological enhancement practices.
Biography
- 1999-2004: study of Philosophy and Computational Linguistics at the University of Potsdam
- 2005/2006: scientific assistant at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Potsdam
- 2006-2010: Doctorate in Philososphy at the University of Potsdam (title of the dissertation: ”Philosophical Anthropology of Passion. The human being as an element of the empirical world”)
- 2006-2010: Scholarship from the German National Student Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
- 2010/2011: Postdoc-Fellow at the Postgraduate Programme “Lebensformen und Lebenswissen” (DFG-Graduiertenkolleg) at the University of Potsdam and the European University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder
- since 2011: Postdoc-Fellow at the Postgraduate Programme “Bioethics” (DFG-Graduiertenkolleg) at the International Centre for Ehtics in the Sciences and Humanties/Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
Contact
E-Mail: bjsydow@gmx.de