European Information Network - Ethics in Medicine and Biotechnology
A project of the European Commission,Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme
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European Information Network - Ethics in Medicine and BiotechnologyA project of the European Commission,Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme |
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If you require further information, please contact the organizers directly.
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| Date: | 26.08.2007 to 30.08.2007 |
| Location: | Kontakt der Kontinenten
Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
The Netherlands Soesterberg Niederlande (The Netherlands) |
| Details: | The kingdom of action is the future: When we intend to do something, we reflect upon future outcomes, and when we act, we give shape to tomorrow's world. Thus ethics, if understood as the reflection upon what is the right thing to do or to aim at, will have to pay specific attention to the future. The future, however, seems to be a terra incognita. To be sure, we can make assumptions and predictions, legions of scientists calculate probabilities and estimate chances or risks ? but in the end, we never know the future with any certainty that is comparable with the knowledge we can have over past or present things. We always operate with a mere anticipation, not a representation of things to come. But many decisions cannot wait; our world is in permanent change and permanently modified through new developments. At the same time the future is not something we wait for passively. We are not just observers, but we are participants and designers as well. We intentionally make and design the future, both in a material and a social sense. In doing so, we literally make our predictions true when we design laws, artefacts, and social institutions. The Summerschool 2007 of the Netherlands School for Research in Practical Philosophy explores the ways in which ethics can deal with the (un-) predictability of the future. We need to get an impression of what this future might look like, but also what form of future-directed knowledge we can have. We need to analyze how to decide about the best course of actions, and how to design the future (if that is possible) in an ethical way. In order to discuss these problems during the Summerschool, we look at different phenomena separately. How should we deal with the future of mankind as whole, i.e. future generations? How should we deal with the future on an individual level, i.e. with the increasing capability to modify human nature and transcend hitherto fixed limits? How should our future institutions look like, being essential for the political and social reality humans live in? And finally ? given that our future will be thoroughly technological ? how to cope with the risks of future technologies, and how to use our moral imagination to design a future with the help of these technologies? |
| Organizer: | Netherlands Research School for Practical Philosophy (OZSE) |
| Contact: | Address: The Netherlands School for Research in Practical Philosophy c/o Ethiek Instituut Heidelberglaan 2 3584 CS Utrecht The Netherlands Tel: +31 - (0)30 - 2 53 -21 26/ -43 99 Fax: +31 - (0)30 - 2 53 94 10 Email: ozse@ethics.uu.nl |
| Webpage: | http://www.ozse.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=1 |
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