This project approaches the question of the juridical and philosophical statuses of both pre-human and non-human bodies within
contemporary political debates and decision making on stem cell research and
OGMs. By means of an internationally comparative study, it focuses upon the juridical status of GMOs (as non-human
bodies) and embrios (as pre-human bodies) within Brazil, USA and Germany
biosafety laws.
In parallel with this, the project discusses the way in which the debates on
genomics and reproductive technologies impinge upon philosophical
understandings of both science's purposiveness and finality, and the limits of
the "ethics of discourse" within the Humanities. The conjugation of
science, logos and the political is at the core of this debate, insofar as
genomics and biotechnologies are said to promote a shift in the pairs voice/logos
and voice/language into the making of knowledge. By drawing on social theorists
and philosophers who studied the influence of contemporary technoscience upon
the conjugation of science, logos and the political such as Bruno Latour,
Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida and Bernard Stiegler, the project works out a
twofold contribution to this debate:
1. An analysis of empirical situations in
which scientists, religious, and politicians give voice to non-human and
pre-human bodies;
2. By approaching the crisis of the "ethics of
discourse" before genomics and reproductive technologies, it entertains the
kind of alternative "listenings" that are directed toward both
non-human and pre-human subjects as a counterpart to anthropocentric
conceptions of the play of voice/logos and voice/language.
