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The writings of Jean-Marie Schaeffer stand out among those of other French philosophers because they not only emphasize the relevance of the evolutionary approach within philosophical reflection, generally completely discredited in intellectual circles linked to continental philosophy, but because they introduce it into aesthetic research, which is even less frequent among philosophers in general. In Schaeffer's research, this approach makes explicit the existence of a meeting point between, on the one hand, the philosophical critique of anthropocentrism and animal ethics, and, on the other hand, aesthetic analysis. As I argue in this paper, in light of Shaeffer's reflections some important implications of the theory of biological evolution in the problematization of the assumption of a human moral superiority within philosophical aesthetics become evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the notion of moral sense in Hutcheson by proposing the thesis that its foundation rests on a plan designed by Providence, which has provided human beings with the capacity to approve moral good and evil. In this sense, we explain how moral approval consists in an internal perception of a sentimental character founded on the goodness of the divinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kant's moral philosophy intends to be an articulated project between metaphysics of morals and practical anthropology. In the works in which he undertakes the task of grounding his metaphysics of morals, namely, The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant insists that he borrows nothing from anthropology to support this grounding, whereas in his two other most important practical writings, the Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant applies his metaphysics of morals to anthropology. By discussing Kant's idea that empirical happiness is an essential end for every human being, and that his metaphysics of morals is just incoherent without denying rationality and freedom to every sensible incentive, this paper problematizes the possibility of the articulated project of Kant's moral philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports and problematizes three findings from multiple texts on the science-technology-society triad that refer to the knowledge and practices of biotechnology and synthetic biology, two fields that aim to optimize what is alive and life. Said findings reveal the modes of operation of biology and biotechnology as life technologies. For that purpose, this paper used the methodological notions of government and counter-conducts taken from Foucault's toolbox because they focus on finding solutions that maximize human performance by accepting practices related to the transformation of vitality. The first finding questions the applications of biotechnology; the second one reveals the positioning of synthetic biology in the industrial sector; and the third one, related to bioart, problematizes the implications of the government of that what is alive and life from an economic perspective. Therefore, this article stimulates a reflection on biotechnology and synthetic biology as part of our daily life, which encourages us to be concerned about the acceptance of well-established practices regarding human and environmental wellbeing, question the truths that constitute us, and express ourselves based on personal choices that reveal our ethical position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]