Transhumanism: The New Eugenics | Prof. Steven Jensen

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

Prof. Steven Jensen critically examines transhumanism as a new form of eugenics, arguing that the pursuit of human enhancement through technologies like genetic engineering and brain-computer interfaces repeats the ethical pitfalls of historical eugenics by neglecting the importance of human nature and the distinction between treatment and enhancement.

This lecture was given on February 13th, 2025, at Texas A&M University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speaker:

Steven J Jensen, who holds the Bishop Nold Chair in Graduate Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, teaches in The Center for Thomistic Studies. His fields of research include bioethics, moral psychology, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, human nature, and natural law. He is the author of several books, including Living the Good Life: A Beginner’s Thomistic Ethics and The Human Person: A Beginner’s Thomistic Psychology.

Keywords: Bioethics, Brain-Computer Interfaces, CRISPR Technology, Enhancement vs. Treatment, Eugenics, Genetic Engineering, Human Nature, Liberal Eugenics, Steven Jensen, Transhumanism

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.0	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.0	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tomistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.0	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:24.6	Transhumanism. You've probably heard of it, but not everybody has.
0:29.6	It's really based upon the idea of improving human beings by technology of some sort of or other.
0:39.3	Ultimately, the idea is to transform human beings, and hence transhumans,
0:45.3	to get beyond being human.
0:47.3	Some of the examples that they have with regard to this are probably most dramatically
0:53.3	CRISPR technology, but genetic engineering in general.
0:58.9	It's just that CRISPR technology has finally made it something maybe a little more realistic
1:03.9	than it ever has been before. So the idea here is not to use genetic engineering to connect correct genetic defects, but
1:16.7	rather to create enhancements.
1:19.1	So that's the terminology that's typically used.
1:22.0	So enhancements means an improvement of some sort or other.
1:26.4	So, you know, if we splice in a couple extra
1:30.4	intelligence genes into you or something, then you've been enhanced. It's not that we corrected
1:36.2	a defect. We improved you in some way or other. Or if we, you know, spliced in some genes
1:42.6	that made you super strong or something like that, then that would
1:46.4	be a kind of genetic engineering idea of enhancement and hence transhumanism.
1:54.0	Another area that they talk about using these enhancements is sort of melding human beings with technology.
2:03.0	The one that has gotten more attention in the last year or two is putting chips in the brain
	...

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