Transhuman Flourishing, Pt. 1

This is the introduction to an essay attempting to synthesize virtue ethics in the tradition of Aristotle, Henry Veatch, and Ayn Rand, with the ideas of libertarian transhumanism. I will attempt to give transhumanism an ethical basis, and demonstrate that self-enhancement can be constitutive of human flourishing. I will start by broadly outlining the history and ideas of each tradition.

Virtue ethics is the idea that emphasizes the character of a moral agent, rather than rules or consequences of an action. It has reached its greatest expression in the ideas of Aristotle, Henry Veatch, and Ayn Rand, with such thinkers as Socrates, Thomas Aquinas, Douglas Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl, Roderick Long, and Geoffery Plauche also providing key insights. One of the central concepts is "eudaimonia" or human flourishing, the natural end that all human action is aimed towards. Through the use of practical and theoretical wisdom, virtue, and the possession of certain goods, one can consciously aim and reach one's full potential as a human being.

Transhumanism is the idea that technology can and should be used to enhance human mental and physical capabilities. This includes such things as amplified intelligence, "cyborgization" (the inclusion of artificial parts into the human body), and direct neural interfaces (the direct linking of computers to the brain). Libertarian transhumanism is distinguished from other groups, such as democratic and technocratic transhumanism, in that it emphasizes the fact that each individual has the right to enhance themselves as they see fit, and that interfering with the right to self-enhancement is fundamentally immoral and impractical.

The remainder of the essay will be aimed towards a synthesis of self-actualization with self-enhancement, and will be completed (probably in sections) when I find the time.