Science, Virtue, and the Future of Humanity

This is a book about the futurethe future of liberty, love, and learning in a scientific age. Ranging from the techno-utopian to the techno-wary, the authors explore the possible shape of the world to come. Can we expect an unbounded, creative future? Or is it true, as Abraham Lincoln said, that This is a world of compensations, a world where both human and cosmic nature (not to mention divine justice) set limits and establish relations that have a logic all their own? If even robots need morality, as the AI theorists are beginning to realize, then we really are stuck with virtue. This insightful and eloquent collection helps us think more deeply about permanence in the midst of change. -- Diana J. Schaub, Loyola University Maryland

Peter Augustine Lawler is Dana Professor of Government at Berry College. Marc D. Guerra is associate professor and chair of theology at Assumption College.

Introduction. Observations on American Liberty: My Report from the Front, Peter Augustine Lawler Chapter 1. Pensions and Health Care in an Aging Society, James C. Captretta Chapter 2. The Demographic Challenge to Entitlements: A Comment, Criticism, and Caveat, William English Chapter 3. An Earned Humility: Reflections on Professional Obligations to the Living Kidney Donor, Benjamin Hippen Chapter 4. The Science of Politics and the Conquest of Nature, Patrick J. Deneen Chapter 5. The Problem with 'Friendly' Artificial Intelligence, Adam Keiper and Ari N. Schulman Chapter 6. The Case for Enhancing People, Ronald Bailey Chapter 7. Justice without Foundations, Robert P. Kraynak Chapter 8. Blame It on My Genotype (if Not My Criminal Brain): Materialist Metaphysics and the Loss of Human Dignity, J. Daryl Charles Chapter 9. Libertarians vs. Liberal Learning, Peter Augustine Lawler Chapter 10. Machine Morality and Human Responsibility, Charles T. Rubin Chapter 11. Tocqueville on Technology, Benjamin Storey Chapter 12. The Place of Liberal Education in Contemporary Higher Education, Marc D. Guerra