This chapter addresses scientific and medical concepts of nature in the modern period in Europe and North America, from the seventeenth century to the present. During this period, under the influence of Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and his followers, biology and medicine self-consciously became increasingly scientific, resulting in the biotechnologies that are the focus of this volume. The reach of contemporary biotechnology is global, but its origins are to be found in the science and medicine of early modern Europe and North America, the main focus of this chapter.
Our goal in this chapter is to map three major conceptions of nature in the context of three case studies: food, animal, and plants as pure and impure; medical interventions to correct the deficiencies of nature; and the dynamic and ever-changing conceptions of aging.1 We therefore do not attempt a comprehensive historical explanation of the social, cultural, and other forces that shaped concepts of nature during these centuries. We do attempt to understand how concepts of and appeals to nature were conceptualized in each of the three case studies, allowing the distinctive voices of the past to be heard, as best we can, on their own terms. On this basis we identify lessons learned from these three case studies for appeals to nature as normative. These lessons emphasize the complexities and challenges of appeals to nature as normative in assessing scientific and technological advances. Responsible management of these complexities can be accomplished by adhering to requirements, drawn from the three case studies, for constructing historically informed appeals to nature as normative in the assessment of biotechnologies.
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McCullough, L.B., Caskey, J., Cole, T.R., Wear, A. (2008). Scientific and Medical Concepts of Nature in the Modern Period in Europe and North America. In: Lustig, B.A., Brody, B.A., McKenny, G.P. (eds) Altering Nature. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 97. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6921-5_4
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