Useful for What? Dewey's Call to Humanize Techno-Industrial Civilization

The heart of Dewey’s call to humanize techno-industrial civilization was to conceive science and technology in the service of aesthetic consummations. Hence his philosophy suggests a way to reclaim and affirm technology on behalf of living more fulfilling lives. He remains a powerful ally today in the fight against deadening efficiency, narrow means-end calculation, “frantic exploitation,” and the industrialization of everything. Nonetheless, it is common to depict him as a philosopher we should think around rather than with. The first section of this essay explores his philosophy of technology and environment in light of Bacon, Heidegger, and Borgmann. Most of the techno-industrial and vocational activities which we pretend are “instrumental,” Dewey argued, actually reduce “to a very minimum the esthetic aspect of experiences had in the course of the daily occupation.” It is argued that, insofar as cooperative intelligence can guide the direction of technological development, it does not honor contemplative life if we abdicate or downgrade that responsibility. The second section of this essay explores Dewey’s instrumentalism as a critique of vicious intellectualism. It is argued that, for Dewey, genuine progress serves the aesthetic dimension of experience. This assertion contrasts with the most common interpretive error among both critics and admirers of Dewey, namely that he is mostly a champion of science. Moreover, critics of Dewey’s instrumentalist theory of inquiry often mistake it as (a) an attack on any conception of intrinsic value, or (b) an attempt to collapse the value of means into the value of ends. In Dewey’s view, we habitually look for progress in the wrong place because we carry around with us some big idea of a final and ultimate good for measuring it. In his view, the ameliorative expansion of significance that emerges from our dealings with perplexing situations is the only place progress can really be found

Case Study: Asilomar Conference on Laboratory Precautions When Conducting Recombinant DNA Research

This case is an in-depth summary on an extensively controversial conference held at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove California, in 1973, where approximately 100 leading scientists in the field convened to formulate safety measures to direct the development of recombinant DNA technology in the United States. It resulted in subsequent discussions, including the conception of a proposed regulated guidelines and risk categories for rDNA experiments. These procedures were adopted and widely used by the US Government today. Appendices include: A.) Chronology; B.) Views on the Asilomar Process; C.) Members of Groups Central to the Scientists’ Debates about rDNA Research 1973-76; D.) Biographical Notes on Scientists involved in the Asilomar Process; E.) Ethical Evaluation of Recombinant DNA Research; F.) Contemporaneous Perspectives on Recombinant DNA Research; G.) Teaching Notes; and H.) Useful Websites

Sanctions from on High: The Legitimizing Power of American Exceptionalism

American exceptionalism has been interpreted as everything from a double-edged ideology to a domestic political division. At times it has been called a myth and at others given mythological importance. Whether interpreting its darker or brighter sides, however, a single dimension of American Exceptionalism threads through the literature at large: the capacity of those who seek to achieve a political objective to utilize American Exceptionalism as a means to an end. This paper devotes the bulk of its energies to reexamining the Iraq war, specifically the role American Exceptionalism played in implementing U.S. policy in the lead-up to the invasion, as well as in legitimizing the actions of the U.S. Rather than testifying to the fact or fiction of American Exceptionalism, as so many have done before, this paper instead argues that American Exceptionalism serves as a vital legitimizing factor for the United States government, which it uses to justify adhering to a different set of rules from those other nations are expected to follow. In the case of the Iraq War, the United States brandished Exceptionalist spirit to exempt itself from UN treaties in defiance of international law, and to start an unnecessary war

miR126-5p Downregulation Facilitates Axon Degeneration and NMJ Disruption via a Non-Cell-Autonomous Mechanism in ALS.

Axon degeneration and disruption of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) are key events in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology. Although the disease\u27s etiology is not fully understood, it is thought to involve a non-cell-autonomous mechanism and alterations in RNA metabolism. Here, we identified reduced levels of miR126-5p in presymptomatic ALS male mice models, and an increase in its targets: axon destabilizing Type 3 Semaphorins and their coreceptor Neuropilins. Using compartmentalize