TITLE:
The Affirmation of Life: A Moral Genealogy Perspective on Life and Its Implications
AUTHORS:
Lei Han
KEYWORDS:
Affirmation of Life, Life-Denying, Moral Genealogy, Bioethics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.1,
January
30,
2024
ABSTRACT: With the rapid development of modern times, contemporary bioethics
increasingly faces various challenges. These include the insufficient grounding
of mainstream value theories in universality, and an overly abstract
understanding of concepts such as life, suffering, and health. This paper
argues that Nietzsche’s moral genealogy can offer valuable insights for
contemporary bioethics to reflect on these issues.
To better illustrate this point, the first two chapters examine the
critiques and stances of moral genealogy. On one hand, they explore the moral
genealogy’s critique of traditional morality’s life-denying practices. On the
other hand, they summarize the life-affirming viewpoints and stances that
emerge in the moral genealogy’s critique. Building on this foundation, the
final chapter clarifies that the contributions of moral genealogy to
contemporary bioethics are threefold. First, moral genealogy’s dynamic
understanding of life’s generative nature offers a counterpoint to contemporary
bioethics’ static treatment of life as an abstraction. Second, the moral
genealogy’s concept of “pleasing suffering” encourages contemporary bioethics
to more openly acknowledge the inevitable suffering associated with life.
Third, moral genealogy’s dynamic view of health provides a perspective to
reconsider the static view of health in contemporary bioethics.