Abstract:
Bioethics has the hermeneutical task of interpreting scientific knowledge
produced by the biological and social sciences in order to propose moral
norms and values that are adequate to it. Therefore, it needs to account for the
process of translating descriptive statements into normative ones, without
falling prey to the naturalistic fallacy. It also requires an interdisciplinary
conception of human nature as the basis for the hermeneutical process. That
conception should avoid a univocal anthropocentrism as well as an equivocal
biocentrism and reconcile the biological and historical dimensions that constitute
the human being. This paper examines analogical hermeneutics, as
proposed and developed by the Mexican philosopher Mauricio Beuchot, as a
largely unplumbed resource for meaningfully illumining inescapable challenges
and tensions at the core of bioethics. In brief, the author suggests that
analogical hermeneutics can provide bioethics with a philosophical framework
for the normative interpretation of descriptive statements. An analogical-hermeneutical
approach is suggested for other bioethical problems, such
as the elaboration of an interdisciplinary notion of human nature or the
search for alternatives to anthropocentric and biocentric positions.
