Daedalus articles from January 2008

Daedalus archives from January 2008

Life, chance & life chances.
January 1, 2008... Like all men in Babylon, I have been proconsul; like all, I have been a slave. I have known omnipotence, ignominy, imprisonment.... I owe that almost monstrous variety to an institution--the Lottery--which is unknown in other nations, or at...

The beginning of individual human life.
January 1, 2008... When did I begin? When does any individual human being begin? At what stage of its development does a human organism become entitled to the moral status and legal protection that we give to the life of a human adult? Is it at conception, at...

Embryo ethics.
January 1, 2008... If we were to contemplate killing mentally handicapped infants to obtain transplantable organs, no one would characterize the controversy that would erupt as a debate about organ transplantation. The dispute would be about the ethics of killing...

The value of life: somatic ethics & the spirit of biocapital.
January 1, 2008... What is the value of life? (1) This may seem a pretentious or a philosophical question. But it is the subject of much contemporary discussion. In August 2006, England's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises on...

What is your life worth?
January 1, 2008... What is your life worth to you? 'Everything,' you might say, since if you lose your life you lose everything. On the other hand, Epicurus's answer appears to have been 'nothing': Become accustomed to the belief that death is nothing...

How dying became a 'life crisis'.
January 1, 2008... The controversy over euthanasia is one indication of America's fascination with biopolitical issues at the intersection of life and death. (1) Most states prohibit physicians from actively assisting patients to hasten death, but recognize a...

Eating animals the nice way.(evaluating the so-called 'benign carnivorism and its impact on animal rights)(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Many people are opposed to factory farming because of the terrible suffering it inflicts on animals, yet see no objection to eating animals that are killed painlessly after having been reared in conditions that are at least no worse, and are...

Synthetic life.
January 1, 2008... In 1540, the German cartographer Sebastian Munster published the first accurate map of the African subcontinent. Contrary to the Ptolemaic view--in which Africa, Antarctica, and part of Asia formed a single southern land mass known as Terra...

Anon.(Poem)
January 1, 2008... Love. I am. Anonymous. When I write: ... yf my love wer in my armys and I yn my bed agayne To you. Thus. Love. I am. Anonymous. When I write: ... if my love were in my arms and I in my bed again To you. Thus. Love....

Three letters, one song & a refrain.(fiction by Chris Abani)(Fictional work)
January 1, 2008... This red string is for you, Mama Dear Mama, This is a kind of letter, though I am writing most of it in my heart, for you, for me, for a time when I can speak it. This torn and bloodied sheet should be enough, but words bring clarity....

On turning green into gold.(economic approach on environmental protection)(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Anthropogenic effects on the climate and biodiversity of our planet are among the most troubling and perhaps irreversible threats facing scientists, policymakers, and citizens. Yet many scientists are reluctant or unsure of how to apply their...

On a Jewish musical Renaissance.(evaluating Jewish music that occured during the Italian Renaissance)(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... The title of this essay is best framed as a question: Did the Jews have a musical 'renascence' in the Renaissance? It is impossible to answer it without asking a host of others: What is meant by Renaissance? How valid is the term as a...