Luca Lo Sapio

The ethics of cultivated meat is an emerging field of applied ethics. As the world’s population increases, stakeholders, scholars, and producers have begun to devise new strategies to meet growing food needs and to prevent food production from having a deleterious environmental impact. In this paper, I will focus on the main moral arguments against the production and consumption of cultivated meat. I will then frame some arguments to show that none of the objections to the production and consumption of cultivated meat is convincing.In the concluding remarks, I will suggest that cultivated meat should be considered as one strategy in a wide array of options to embrace a new food model. Deciding not to invest on this technology prevents us from benefiting from a useful means that could improve our living conditions.

The ethics of cultivated meat is an emerging field of applied ethics. As the world’s population increases, stakeholders, scholars, and producers have begun to devise new strategies to meet growing food needs and to prevent food production from having a deleterious environmental impact. In this paper, I will focus on the main moral arguments against the production and consumption of cultivated meat. I will then frame some arguments to show that none of the objections to the production and consumption of cultivated meat is convincing.In the concluding remarks, I will suggest that cultivated meat should be considered as one strategy in a wide array of options to embrace a new food model. Deciding not to invest on this technology prevents us from benefiting from a useful means that could improve our living conditions.

Cultivated meat is a new technology that since the 2000s has been attracting the attention of academics, policy-makers and producers, all of whom see it as a viable answer to some challenges that conventional meat production and consumption raises. Beyond several critical issues concerning the production (use of culture medium, monitoring of the cell proliferation process, large-scale manufacturing of the product, etc.) some authors, mostly philosophers, are also raising a number of moral objections. In this paper I shall focus on three possible set of arguments: 1) the wisdom of repugnance; 2) the notion that nature would be endangered by a technology like cultivated meat; 3) the argument of cannibalism. In the concluding remarks, I will argue that we must keep both the biotechnological eschatology and the moral eschatology at a distance, the former claiming to solve the ethical crises of our age exclusively using biotechnology, the latter claiming to do without biotechnology altog...

Western philosophy has always stressed the importance of understanding the very nature of the universe and the relationship between humanity and the cosmos. Nowadays, astrobiology is used to shed light on that issue through a set of empirical data. Also, the Fermi paradox and the Rare Earth hypothesis could offer a suitable ground to properly interpret the proofs emerging from space exploration and direct and indirect observations from astronomers, that is, “we are likely the only intelligent species within the universe.” From this, we can say that maybe we are confronted with a cosmic bet. We should better wager on our cosmic importance as a species, otherwise the loss could be immense: the disappearance of the only species through which the universe enabled itself to understand its own secrets and cosmic treasures.

In December 2019, the city of Wuhan in Hubei became the epicenter of an unprecedented health crisis. SARS-CoV-2 is marking a watershed moment for sapiens. On the one hand, we are facing the most serious health emergency of the 21st century, on the other hand we are beginning to experience the negative effects of our development models that do not take into account the welfare of non-human animals and the systemic effect that our actions have on the balance of the biosphere. In the contributions hosted in this Dossier, the plurality of issues raised by SARS-CoV-2 comes to light clearly and distinctly. From bioethical questions to biopolitical issues, including an in-depth examination of the effects that the pandemic is having on society and on the capacity for selfperception of sapiens, we try to shed light on the countless consequences that this pandemic is bringing with it.

THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK AND ETHICAL MODELS The fourth Industrial Revolution heralds a series of cultural, political, social and economic upheavals that will unfold over the 21st century. Our current dossier intends, therefore, to deepen the ethical and philosophical-anthropological aspects connected to the fourth industrial revolution, not without paying attention to some aspects dealing with its methods of realization. What is the fourth industrial revolution and is it correct to use the term revolution to describe it? Which ethical models are more suitable to accompany the transformations we are witnessing? Is it possible to imagine a different model of society for man through the use of growing automation processes? Is it possible to imagine a new paradigm for framing the relationship between man and the future of job? The introduction of novelties such as synthetic meat can help us overcome some ethical controversies related to animal welfare an...

Posthuman. The Body between Psychoanalysis, Biopolitics, virtual Reality and Art The posthuman has become a topic of central interest for the definition of certain key-elements of Western thought. The May 27, 2016 in Naples an interesting meeting has been held, in which various speakers discussed on the effects that post-human and posthumanism have been producing in art, philosophy, psychoanalysis and literature. In particular, it was shown that the posthuman is a complex issue that requires multiple strategies to be addressed and understood effectively. The posthuman evokes fears and hopes and in particular it is directly connected with the vocation of man to self-transcendence, a somehow natural tendency which is leading to a general reorganization of Western man's identity structures and to a general reshaping of his profound imagery.

Hugo Tristram Engelhardt jr. Christian Bioethics in the Land of moral Strangers This paper deals with the foundations of Engelhardt's moral and bioethical view. In particular, it focuses 1) the relationship between procedural Ethics and Morality; 2) Engelhardt's arguments aimed at legitimating an extrarational moral perspective within our societies in which traditional moralities grounded on religious insights (such as the one proposed through Orthodox Catholic Church) are generally marginalized; 3) some possible applications of Engelhardt's thoughts (for example, in healthcare system)

Transhumanism, enhancement and evolution. Preliminary reflections for a critical redefinition This paper aims at focusing some possible uses of evolutionary theory in transhumanist authors. In particular it is analysed the evolutionary heuristics discussed by Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg, the proposal of a moral bioenhancement in Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson and the idea itself of a self-direct evolution based on the assumption of a self-guided selection of men's features. These ideas are discussed to bring out the critical elements which are present in some uses of a presumably Darwinian framework in transhumanist approach.

This paper focuses on the important disputation about biomoral enhancement, the new frontier of human enhancement international debate. In the first part, it analyses the main issues of Unfit for the future, the 2012 book of Savulescu and Persson, which represents a very relevant step within this theme. In the second part, it considers some arguments against Persson and Savulescu's thesis and their own replies. Finally, it develops some arguments to show the difficulties related to the idea that it is possible to clearly understand the nature of a moral enhancement and point out the hurdle to circumscribe the basic elements we have to intervene on in order to obtain a real improvement of human moral attitudes

Living with the Robots. A Conversation about social Robotics This interview aims at focusing some aspects of an intriguing discipline known as social Robotics. In particular, we try to get familiar with concepts and philosophical frameworks which deal with this new human enterprise. Paul Dumouchel and Luisa Damiano will help us to get in contact with a scenario in which emotions, reason and ethics will be partially revised by a somehow different perspective about human-robot interaction and sociality.

Speculation and testability in cosmology: in defense of the method The direct detection of the gravitational waves offers new means for the exploration of the cosmos: we can investigate the centre of supernovae, the physics of black holes and gamma flashes, and even push (in the future) our gaze at the early stages of life of the Universe. Cosmological research has allowed us to establish a robust framework of the structure and evolution of the Universe. However, some of his foundations are still mysterious as they were twenty years ago: the nature of dark matter or the value of the fundamental physical constants. Some theoretical proposals for solving these problems are based on theoretical entities beyond any possible verification, perhaps even in principle, fueling the controversy about the state of scientificness of part of contemporary theoretical physics. After briefly presenting the state of current knowledge in cosmology, we will introduce the problems of philosophical inter...

This paper aims to organize a reflection about the recent developing field of synthetic biology. It is structured into three main parts. The first one tries to point out the features of this emerging field (the analogies and the differences with the genetic engineering); the second one analyzes the terms and the concepts we can find in the fundamental article by Venter et al. (and in the recent article published by La Jolla Institute's researchers); the third one delineates the principal outcomes of synthetic biology's applications, in particular, for the formulation of the concept of life. Therefore it is proposed a connection between artificial life's science and human enhancement. In fact I think it is possible to clarify human enhancement problem by a specific investigation of synthetic biology's main characteristics.

Bioethics on trial. Remarks and critical Observations After the definitive consecration of Bioethics, both at the academic and at the public level some scholars, from the early years of the new century, have begun to move criticism into various aspects of the discipline. In the present paper, after a brief medicineintroduction of historical character (§ 2), I will present some of these criticisms (§ 3) by highlighting strengths and weaknesses (§ 4). In the final paragraph (§5), I maintain that bioethics, despite some critical elements, can still be an important discipline both to understand the transformations of our society induced by biomedical developments and to provide homo technologicus with useful tools to guide his own moral conduct.

This article tries to develop the assumption that medicine and philosophy can strictly collaborate to assure a correct comprehension of the huge phenomenon of illness and disease. We can imagine a direct application of philosophical theories and models to ameliorate the theoretical instruments of medicine itself. Philosophy can furnish elaborated means to elucidate the problem of medical mistakes and fallacies. Moreover it can contribute to clarify the precise distinction between the various typologies of causality which can be found in medical practice and theorization. It can still focus the question of probability and credence in medicine and give precise theoretical suggestions for a more articulated arrangement of some defined medical concepts.

Incompetent patients between advance directives and the objection to moral authority The present paper aims at focusing on some of the arguments for or against the possibility for incompetent individuals to exercise their will through living will. After providing clarification about the specific subject of investigation (of the paper) and the context in which informed consent has raised and developed, I analyze the objections to the extension View argument, and the counter-arguments by Buchanan, Brock and Brody. Finally, I formulate an argument in support of the thesis that the will of the patient is not betrayed by the use of any self-determination paper which, on the contrary, constitutes an extension of the informed consent principle in situations of incapacity.

Riassunto: Il presente contributo intende esplorare la possibilita di una ridefinizione del concetto di liberta alla luce di un quadro naturalistico di riferimento. Per un verso, si rileva come le concezioni della liberta che cercano di salvaguardare una posizione dell’uomo estranea al naturalismo sono contrassegnate da una componente “quasi-teologica”; per altro verso, si analizzano due importanti teorie elaborate in ambito neurobiologico (epigenesi per stabilizzazione selettiva delle sinapsi e darwinismo neurale) per mettere in evidenza come la liberta, non intesa come liberum arbitrium indifferentiae , possa avere un inquadramento piu preciso come capacita di scelta a partire da percorsi esperienziali stabilizzati nella trama di vita di un soggetto. Considerata da questa prospettiva, la liberta sara l’espressione della capacita di ciascun individuo di essere se stesso in una determinata situazione della propria esperienza di vita. Parole-chiave:  Liberta: Naturalismo; Determinism...

Ricevuto: 23 luglio 2015; accettato: 3 novembre 2015 █ Riassunto Il presente contributo intende esplorare la possibilità di una ridefinizione del concetto di libertà alla luce di un quadro naturalistico di riferimento. Per un verso, si rileva come le concezioni della libertà che cercano di salvaguardare una posizione dell'uomo estranea al naturalismo sono contrassegnate da una com-ponente " quasi-teologica " ; per altro verso, si analizzano due importanti teorie elaborate in ambito neurobio-logico (epigenesi per stabilizzazione selettiva delle sinapsi e darwinismo neurale) per mettere in evidenza come la libertà, non intesa come liberum arbitrium indifferentiae, possa avere un inquadramento più preciso come capacità di scelta a partire da percorsi esperienziali stabilizzati nella trama di vita di un soggetto. Con-siderata da questa prospettiva, la libertà sarà l'espressione della capacità di ciascun individuo di essere se stesso in una determinata situazione della propria esperienza di vita. PAROLE CHIAVE: Libertà: Naturalismo; Determinismo; Epigenetica; Selezione. █ Abstract Free Will and Neuroscience: Towards a Naturalistic Model of Conscious Choice – This paper aims at exploring the possibility of redefining the concept of freedom from a naturalistic standpoint. On the one hand, it is argued that conceptions of freedom that seek to preserve man's privileged position in the world suffer from an " almost theological " component. On the other hand, two important theories developed in neurobiology are analyzed (epigenesis of neuronal networks by selective stabil i-zation of synapses and neural darwinism) in order to highlight a conception of freedom far from the idea of a " liberum arbitrium indifferentiae " as the ability to choose from paths of experiences stabilized by selective processes. From this perspective, freedom is the ability of individuals to act as a consequence of experiences stabilized over the course of a lifetime.