This paper expands Prasenjit Duara’s proposal that Asian religions and philosophies offer hope for a sustainable future.After outlining Duara’s sociology of history that describes the crisis of global modernity in t...This paper expands Prasenjit Duara’s proposal that Asian religions and philosophies offer hope for a sustainable future.After outlining Duara’s sociology of history that describes the crisis of global modernity in terms of three global changes,namely the rise of non-western nations,the crisis of climate change,and the decline of religious or transcendent sources of authority,Duara proposes that grassroots organizations coupled with Asian religious and philosophical beliefs and practices offer different ways of understanding the relationship between the person and the environment,and between our universal-planetary interests and our national interests.Drawing from Asian and Pacific indigenous teachings,I propose a type of depth ecology called“existential parity”that all things and creatures have value,generating a moral corollary called the“existential commitment”that humans take responsibility for the environment and each other.The existential commitment offers an environmental ethics that promotes sustainable agriculture to feed the world’s population.Pacific agroforestry practices can be implemented in urban settings to help mitigate climate change and food shortages.展开更多
The rapid developments of science and technology in China over recent decades, particularly in biomedical research, have brought forward serious challenges regarding ethical governance. Recently, Jian-kui HE, a Chines...The rapid developments of science and technology in China over recent decades, particularly in biomedical research, have brought forward serious challenges regarding ethical governance. Recently, Jian-kui HE, a Chinese scientist, claimed to have "created" the first gene-edited babies, designed to be naturally immune to the human immunodeficiency virus(HIV). The news immediately triggered widespread criticism, denouncement, and debate over the scientific and ethical legitimacy of HE’s genetic experiments. China’s guidelines and regulations have banned germline genome editing on human embryos for clinical use because of scientific and ethical concerns, in accordance with the international consensus. HE’s human experimentation has not only violated these Chinese regulations, but also breached other ethical and regulatory norms. These include questionable scientific value, unreasonable risk-benefit ratio, illegitimate ethics review, invalid informed consent, and regulatory misconduct. This series of ethical failings of HE and his team reveal the institutional failure of the current ethics governance system which largely depends on scientist’s self-regulation. The incident highlights the need for urgent improvement of ethics governance at all levels, the enforcement of technical and ethical guidelines, and the establishment of laws relating to such bioethical issues.展开更多
文摘This paper expands Prasenjit Duara’s proposal that Asian religions and philosophies offer hope for a sustainable future.After outlining Duara’s sociology of history that describes the crisis of global modernity in terms of three global changes,namely the rise of non-western nations,the crisis of climate change,and the decline of religious or transcendent sources of authority,Duara proposes that grassroots organizations coupled with Asian religious and philosophical beliefs and practices offer different ways of understanding the relationship between the person and the environment,and between our universal-planetary interests and our national interests.Drawing from Asian and Pacific indigenous teachings,I propose a type of depth ecology called“existential parity”that all things and creatures have value,generating a moral corollary called the“existential commitment”that humans take responsibility for the environment and each other.The existential commitment offers an environmental ethics that promotes sustainable agriculture to feed the world’s population.Pacific agroforestry practices can be implemented in urban settings to help mitigate climate change and food shortages.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.L1824000)
文摘The rapid developments of science and technology in China over recent decades, particularly in biomedical research, have brought forward serious challenges regarding ethical governance. Recently, Jian-kui HE, a Chinese scientist, claimed to have "created" the first gene-edited babies, designed to be naturally immune to the human immunodeficiency virus(HIV). The news immediately triggered widespread criticism, denouncement, and debate over the scientific and ethical legitimacy of HE’s genetic experiments. China’s guidelines and regulations have banned germline genome editing on human embryos for clinical use because of scientific and ethical concerns, in accordance with the international consensus. HE’s human experimentation has not only violated these Chinese regulations, but also breached other ethical and regulatory norms. These include questionable scientific value, unreasonable risk-benefit ratio, illegitimate ethics review, invalid informed consent, and regulatory misconduct. This series of ethical failings of HE and his team reveal the institutional failure of the current ethics governance system which largely depends on scientist’s self-regulation. The incident highlights the need for urgent improvement of ethics governance at all levels, the enforcement of technical and ethical guidelines, and the establishment of laws relating to such bioethical issues.
