In his work Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution, Francis Fukuyama broadcasted his viewpoints on many issues revolving around the biotechnological revolution. One issue that Fukuyama concentrated on was human dignity, and how the advancement of biotechnology could lead to a loss of this solely human property. Fukuyama portrayed his viewpoint on human dignity throughout the novel, and described how human dignity emerges from human nature. This paper will explain Fukuyama’s argument about how human dignity and human nature are connected by defining what human nature, human dignity, and emergence are, and then use the argument of emergence to understand the emergent property of human dignity.
An important first …show more content…
Human nature can be defined as genetic traits, but human dignity is a little more complex. Human dignity, from Fukuyama’s interpretation, is an evolutionary and emergent property of human nature; human dignity arises from how humans have free wills and the ability to make moral choices. Human dignity disregards race, wealth and intelligence, but rather just regards the morality that gives humans dignity. The ultimate term that requires defining is emergence, and thus, what an emergent property is. Fukuyama wrote how intricate products cannot be defined by their inputs, as the reactions that make such products might be nonlinear and result in unexpected outputs. In short, understanding what an emergent property is begins in understanding how in does not equal out, and consequently how there is no way to predicate that one thing would develop from another. A whole system is greater than the sum of its parts, subsequently an emergent property is one that could not be accounted for just looking at the material inputs. Furthermore, now that Fukuyama’s philosophical concepts of human nature, human dignity and emergence are defined, his argument for how human dignity is an emergent quality of human nature can be clearly understood. To
An important first …show more content…
Human nature can be defined as genetic traits, but human dignity is a little more complex. Human dignity, from Fukuyama’s interpretation, is an evolutionary and emergent property of human nature; human dignity arises from how humans have free wills and the ability to make moral choices. Human dignity disregards race, wealth and intelligence, but rather just regards the morality that gives humans dignity. The ultimate term that requires defining is emergence, and thus, what an emergent property is. Fukuyama wrote how intricate products cannot be defined by their inputs, as the reactions that make such products might be nonlinear and result in unexpected outputs. In short, understanding what an emergent property is begins in understanding how in does not equal out, and consequently how there is no way to predicate that one thing would develop from another. A whole system is greater than the sum of its parts, subsequently an emergent property is one that could not be accounted for just looking at the material inputs. Furthermore, now that Fukuyama’s philosophical concepts of human nature, human dignity and emergence are defined, his argument for how human dignity is an emergent quality of human nature can be clearly understood. To