Darwinian Conservatism by Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr

Author:Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Darwinisn conservatism, social thought, Darwin, theory of evolution, politics, society, biology, utopianism, religion, political freedom, freedom, morality, political philosophy, realism, liberty, abstract liberty, ordered liberty, naute, custom, reason, family values, sex differences, moral sentiments, moral traditions, natural property, customary property, formal property, God, intelligent design, emergence, reductionism, dualism, soul, brain, social Darwinism, eugenics, biotechnology
ISBN: 9781845406448
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2015
Published: 2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

Optimism, Pessimism, and Realism

In arguing that biotechnology is embedded within, and thus limited by, our natural human desires as shaped by Darwinian evolution, I oppose both the exaggerated optimism of some proponents of biotechnology and the exaggerated pessimism of some critics. Both the optimists and the pessimists assume that biotechnology will abolish human nature in the quest for a “posthuman” condition. Conservative Darwinism would avoid such exaggeration and adopt a more realist stance that recognizes the ways in which human nature will always limit the uses of biotechnology.

Today, the biotech optimists are led by libertarians like Lee Silver, Gregory Stock, and Ronald Bailey. The biotech pessimists are led by neoconservatives like Kass, Francis Fukuyama, and William Kristol, and by environmentalists like Bill McKibben and Jeremy Rifkin. Both sides make the exaggerated claim that biotechnology is headed towards the abolition of human nature.

As suggested by the title of his book Remaking Eden, Lee Silver foresees that biotechnology will soon give us the god-like power to recreate ourselves into whatever form we might want.[16] He makes the libertarian argument that if we respect individual freedom of choice, then we must allow people to use reproductive technology in any way they choose, as long as it does not directly harm anyone else. This will permit parents to use genetic engineering to create “designer babies” that will have the traits of body and mind desired by the parents.

But when Silver speaks of the power of biotechnology for changing human nature, he exaggerates both with respect to the technical means and with respect to the moral ends. With respect to the technical means, the following comment from Silver is typical: “some of the ideas proposed here may ultimately be technically impossible or exceedingly difficult to implement. On the other hand, there are sure to be technological breakthroughs that no one can imagine now.”[17] Well, maybe. Or, maybe not. This is the rhetoric of hand waving: it’s not possible now, but surely sometime in the future there will be “technological breakthroughs” to be make it possible. This kind of rhetorical move allows an author to spin out imaginative scenarios based on purely speculative assumptions about the future.

With respect to the moral ends of reproductive technology, Silver exaggerates in suggesting that the traditional motivations for human behavior will be completely transcended. And yet the plausibility of Silver’s libertarian position depends on his implicit assumption that the new reproductive technology will be guided by the same natural desires of the human animal that have always moved human beings. At this level of natural desires, human nature will remain unchanged. In particular, Silver stresses the natural desire for parental care. He repeatedly speaks of the “desire to have a child” as a “natural instinct” or “essential human desire” that has been shaped by evolutionary history as an enduring trait of human nature.[18] Although biotechnology will provide us with new means to satisfy this desire, the end is still set by our parental desire to produce and care for our children in ways that enhance their health and happiness.

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