Vulnerability and ethics: considering our Cartesian hangover.

摘要

Postmodernist declarations to the contrary, the ideals of modernity do not seem to be coming to an end. Indeed, Rene Descartes' 17th-century rationalist project still casts a considerable shadow in ourtime. An aspect of this influence is markedly present in contemporary scientific medicine: an intolerance, among some, of uncertainty. As a reaction against important sceptical currents in Renaissance thought, the so-called father of modernity, Rene Descartes, announced a quest for certainty that would provide human knowledge with secure foundations. Such a quest has since been understood as setting quite high the standards by which we judge knowledge. Although, as modern science shows, this quest has resulted in enormous successes, at least in the biomedical sciences, it has also come at a cost: an unwillingness to accept the uncertainty and ambiguity of human affairs. Such unwillingness is embodied in two different, but intrinsically related, aspects of biomedicine:the attemptto provide salve to the inherent finitude and vulnerability of human beings, and the view that considerations of value, including ethical values, are external to the practice of biomedicine.