From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2001 - 23:05:39 MDT
Damien said
>Anyway, welcome to the list, Miriam!
Damien Broderick
[another Aussie]
================================================
Good on yer, Damien.
Miriam, I'll have a bit more of a look at the URLs in your signature block
when I get a moment.
While us Aussies are bonding - hey, Damien's coming around here soon
accompanied by Barbara Lamar, who just about counts as an honorary Aussie
these days- I'll just mention again that I haven't even been all that eager
to label myself "an extropian" (my signature calls me a "transhumanist").
BUT, I have to say that I've read Max More's extropian principles again -
carefully - of late and I can't find anything at all that I seriously
disagree with. This is a very useful set of principles and elaborations:
they paint the picture of a distinctive cluster of philosophical attitudes,
but they are flexible enough to allow for a diversity of (for example,
political) viewpoints.
This brings me to a question to Max, or anyone else who knows the answer.
Damien may also have some clues. Is there much, or any, formal philosophical
literature around that examines, defines and/or critiques transhumanism? I
mean such things as articles in academic journals devoted to philosophy or
jurisprudence. I have some familiarity with relevant web sites and
considerable familiarity with popular books, fiction and non-fiction, that
explore the ideas that comprise transhumanism - those are not what I mean.
I'm not aware of what (if any) more academic work would have to be read and
cited if someone wanted to write about transhumanism in an academic
philosophical context - in the sense that one must be familiar with and
cite, say, Robert Nozick's work (and, say, G.A. Cohen's criticisms) if
writing about libertarianism for an academic audience. Perhaps someone has
an appropriate URL.
Knowing the answer to this might help me and some others on the list with
future projects.
Thanks in advance to whoever.
Ascend!
Russell
==========================================
Russell Blackford
writer philosopher lawyer transhumanist
Active Member: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Member: Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA)
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