Philosophical and Ethical Problems of Technicism and Genetic Engineering

IONS IN SCIENCE To arrive at a better insight into the problems caused by the unlimited application of technicist science, of science as an instrument of control, we need to know more about the abstractions that characterize scientific knowledge. In an irresponsible application of scientific knowledge, these abstractions are projected wholesale onto reality, on the assumption that scientific reality is identical to real reality. The process used to arrive at scientific knowledge is often called analysis or abstraction. Analysis and abstraction are the most symptomatic ways of arriving at scientific knowledge. The scientist analyzes one aspect or function of the many sides of reality. His research properly involves removing, or abstracting, one of these functions or aspects from its coherence with other aspects or functions. For example, the physical aspect, for analytical purposes, PHIL & TECH 3:1 Fall 1997 Schuurman, Technicism and Genetic Engineering/51 may be temporarily removed from its relationship to the biotic or the economic. A second step in the abstraction process involves discarding the concrete, the specific and unique, and focusing only on the general and universal. The third step in abstraction is sometimes known as the abstraction of objectivity. Here the scientist removes himself from the visible, objective reality and consults the laws that govern this reality. Finally, in the fourth step of abstraction the scientist disregards the interests of both himself and his fellow humans. It is this step which represents the “impartiality” of science. It is primarily the last of these four forms of abstraction, namely impartiality, that has recently come under fire. Can an ethical norm for science be set aside so easily? Political, social, or economic interests often direct and stimulate scientific research. If this is the case, then there is little point in talking about objective, impartial science. Moreover, our prescientific and trans-scientific visions of scientific knowledge cannot allow us to speak of objective, impartial science. This becomes clear when we discuss possible applications of scientific knowledge. Generally people presuppose that science will not only provide insight but will also afford control over concrete reality. For this reason modern philosophers of science have paid little attention to the problem of abstraction. By contrast, the Reformational Philosophy, which I represent, has made this a central problem because this philosophy correctly realizes that science increasingly alienates itself from the visible, integrated, and concrete reality, and it does so on the basis of its own pretheoretic presuppositions. Every scientist must observe the four abstractions outlined above if he or she expects to arrive at reliable scientific results. Through the process of abstraction, science removes itself from full reality and full meaning. Let me illustrate. In theory we know how to divide four apples among four children. In reality, it is not that easy. No two apples are the same and children’s preferences change constantly. In our calculations we disregard the size and color of the apples, but in reality it is precisely those factors that determine the children’s choices. PHIL & TECH 3:1 Fall 1997 Schuurman, Technicism and Genetic Engineering/52 The illustration is simple. But when functional science as applied by modern industrial technology and economic interests comes into open conflict with reality, the problem is highly significant. Using natural science as an instrument of control marks everything with the abstractions of science. That means reduction of reality, and when it is done on a large scale it means destruction of reality. Something else must be added to our analysis. Since abstraction disregards the origin, meaning, and coherence of things, scientific findings are at best merely correct even though scientists often claim not merely correctness for their findings and theories but absolute truth. In reality, however, scientific findings confuse rather than clarify the truth. For example, from a strictly scientific point of view, man is a composition of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. This may be correct, but it not true. After all, the statement says nothing about the true nature of man as responsible, or as free, or that he is made in the image of God. In technicism, an individual is usually seen as a cog functioning in a society interpreted as a big machine. There everyone is the same, interchangeable, calculable, and manipulable. A true view of human nature is missing. Within the context of abstractions we can arrive only at a correct view of things. There are various aspects of correctness. Scientific knowledge is first of all functional, in that it concerns knowledge of an abstracted function or an abstracted aspect of an interrelated reality. Furthermore, scientific knowledge is universal in that it disregards the specific, unique, and individual. In addition, recognition of the laws valid for reality gives to scientific knowledge awareness of lawfulness, which is valuable, though this awareness is often incorrectly called objectivity. Finally, scientific knowledge should be independent of subjective, social, economic, or political interests. If this is not the case, scientific knowledge tends to favor, safeguard, or reinforce existing interests. Before discussing the problems associated with applying scientific knowledge, I should also point out that all scientific knowledge is integrated into a system. Such integration is performed through logic, and we can also say that scientific knowledge is a logically integrated knowledge, otherwise known as rational knowledge. PHIL & TECH 3:1 Fall 1997 Schuurman, Technicism and Genetic Engineering/53 The conclusion should be that science is always abstract knowledge. But if we abstract from God, the origin of everything, and from the meaning of everything as dependent upon and directed toward God, then science is absolutized, the abstractions are forgotten, and under the influence of technicism, we get the technicization of reality that brings with it so many problems and perils. TECHNICISM, AGRICULTURE, AND GENETIC ENGINEERING I want to illustrate everything I have said so far by the consequences of instrumentalization of science in agriculture. When the instrumentalization, the scientic-technological control of agriculture, took place on a small scale, the negative consequences were not serious. In the short run, success even prodominated. That is what made it so attractive. The construction of a kind of “counter-creation” in which humans would be lords and masters of everything and be assured of unprecedented material prosperity blinded them to what they were actually doing. As the process of scientization and technicization increased in intensity and scope, the negative aspects became apparent—and even preponderant. Reality has come to be modeled according to a reductive, logically-coherent network. Abstract frameworks have become so predominant that the fullness of reality is broken up atomistically and functionally. This is the deep background of our contemporary dislocation of nature and pollution of the environment. The result of an unlimited scientific-technical control of nature, inorganic and organic, can lead ultimately to the destruction of nature. For the biosphere in which we all live is a supremely complex, unique whole. Steady reduction of plant species produces an unstable and thus ever more difficult situation to control. The need for technical control becomes greater. This gives rise to a dangerous vicious circle. In this light it is clear that human beings, animals, and plants have come to be seen through the spectacles of the technological model. Given the influence of technicism, they can be disesteemed and misformed as technicization occurs. Technicization becomes clear in the danger of creating crops with too great a uniformity in their genetic profile. Genetic uniformity means reduction of the variations in plants. The result, in other words, is genetic erosion and instability, because as a result of the uniform genetic profile and thus of its PHIL & TECH 3:1 Fall 1997 Schuurman, Technicism and Genetic Engineering/54 restricted genetic diversity, resistance to unknown diseases has been lost. The seriousness of this development is illustrated by the attempts which are currently being made to compensate, via artificial gene banks, for the loss of many natural species of plants. Intensive animal husbandry confronts us with similar problems. In bioindustry, scientific-technical control of the abstracted functions of animals have become so absolute that the animal itself, in its intrisic dignity, is no longer taken into account. The so-called procreative techniques are other models of technicization. The consequences of these techniques are that genetic uniformity and genetic erosion occur on a grand scale. If the technicist mind also becomes dominant in the development of genetic engineering, we will be confronted with further technicization of living organisms. This includes a lot of ethical problems such as neglecting intrinsic dignity (and therefore suffering) of, for instance, non-human animals. The unlimited genetic engineering of farm crops would cause greater genetic erosion, because such plants are used on a large scale under the influence of economics. The result is a loss of biodiversity, as well as possible destruction of given natural diversity and stability. This last problem has been mostly neglected because the scientific-technical control of organic nature is not generally recognized in the scientific-technical control of inorganic nature, because the difference between physical laws (including entropy) and biological laws (ektropy) have been neglected.