Material Cultures and Moral Mediators in Human Hybridization

Lorenzo Magnani
Additional contact information
Lorenzo Magnani: University of Pavia, Italy

International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 2010, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: We already are hybrid humans, fruit of a kind of co-evolution of both our brains and the common, scientific, social, and moral knowledge we have produced by ourselves starting from the birth of material culture with our ancestors until the recent effects generated by the whole field of technological artifacts and of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We all are “constitutively” natural-born cyborgs, that is biotechnological hybrid minds. Our minds should not be considered to be located only in the head: human beings have solved their problems of survival and reproduction, “distributing” cognitive and ethical functions to external nonbiological sources, props, and aids, which originate cultures. The paper also illustrates the interplay between cultures and distributed cognition and stresses the role of some technological artifacts as moral mediators. The second part of the paper is related to the analysis of the interplay between cultures, morality, and cognition and of some consequences concerning the problem of intercultural communication in the light of the role of moral mediators, docility, and cyberprivacy. Finally, I discuss some suggestions concerning the problem of what I call the moral principle of isolation of cultures, with respect to the effects of ICTs.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... .4018/jte.2010081001 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jt0000:v:1:y:2010:i:1:p:1-19

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Technoethics (IJT) is currently edited by Steven Umbrello

More articles in International Journal of Technoethics (IJT) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().