* Telos, conservation of welfare, and ethical issues in genetic engineering of animals.
- The most long-lived metaphysics or view of reality in the history of Western thought is Aristotle's teleology, which reigned for almost 2,000 years. Biology was expressed in terms of function or telos, and accorded perfectly with common sense. The rise of mechanistic, Newtonian science vanquished teleological explanations. Understanding and accommodating animal telos was essential to success in animal husbandry, which involved respect for telos, and was presuppositional to our "ancient contract" with domestic animals. Telos was further abandoned with the rise of industrial agriculture, which utilized "technological fixes" to force animal into environments they were unsuited for, while continuing to be productive. Loss of husbandry and respect for telos created major issues for farm animal welfare, and forced the creation of a new ethic demanding respect for telos. As genetic engineering developed, the notion arose of modifying animals to fit their environment in order to avoid animal suffering, rather than fitting them into congenial environments. Most people do not favor changing the animals, rather than changing the conditions under which they are reared. Aesthetic appreciation of husbandry and virtue ethics militate in favor of restoring husbandry, rather than radically changing animal teloi. One, however, does not morally wrong teloi by changing them-one can only wrong individuals. In biomedical research, we do indeed inflict major pain, suffering and disease on animals. And genetic engineering seems to augment our ability to create animals to model diseases, particularly more than 3,000 known human genetic diseases. The disease, known as Lesch-Nyhan's syndrome or HPRT deficiency, which causes self-mutilation and mental retardation, provides us with a real possibility for genetically creating "animal models" of this disease, animals doomed to a life of great and unalleviable suffering. This of course creates a major moral dilemma. Perhaps one can use the very genetic engineering which creates this dilemma to ablate consciousness in such animal models, thereby escaping a moral impasse.
=>1.機能, 関数, 役割, 働き, 2.機能する, 作用する, 働く, 役目を果たす, 3.社交的会合, パーティー, 儀式
Overview of noun function
The noun function has 7 senses (first 3 from tagged texts)
1. (43) function, mathematical function, single-valued function, map, mapping -- ((mathematics) a
mathematical relation such that each element of a given set (the domain of the function) is
associated with an element of another set (the range of the function))
2. (24) function, purpose, role, use -- (what something is used for; "the function of an auger is to
bore holes"; "ballet is beautiful but what use is it?")
3. (7) function, office, part, role -- (the actions and activities assigned to or required or
expected of a person or group; "the function of a teacher"; "the government must do its part"; "play
its role")
4. function -- (a relation such that one thing is dependent on another; "height is a function of
age"; "price is a function of supply and demand")
5. function -- (a formal or official social gathering or ceremony; "it was a black-tie function")
6. affair, occasion, social occasion, function, social function -- (a vaguely specified social
event; "the party was quite an affair"; "an occasion arranged to honor the president"; "a seemingly
endless round of social functions")
7. routine, subroutine, subprogram, procedure, function -- (a set sequence of steps, part of larger
computer program)
Overview of verb function
The verb function has 3 senses (first 3 from tagged texts)
1. (9) function, work, operate, go, run -- (perform as expected when applied; "The washing machine
won't go unless it's plugged in"; "Does this old car still run well?"; "This old radio doesn't work
anymore")
2. (3) serve, function -- (serve a purpose, role, or function; "The tree stump serves as a table";
"The female students served as a control group"; "This table would serve very well"; "His freedom
served him well"; "The table functions as a desk")
3. (1) officiate, function -- (perform duties attached to a particular office or place or function;
"His wife officiated as his private secretary")
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