Human Biosociality: The Experience of Rethinking in the Context of Modernity

Abstract

The turn of the 20–21st centuries is associated with an unprecedented situation in life sciences. The achievements of theoretical and experimental biology along with the progress of biomedicine have created a real opportunity to influence not only an individual organism, but also heredity of the entire human population. The problem of the limits of intervention in human nature is becoming increasingly acute. In this situation, the existing concept of biosociality based on the principle of dual (i.e. biological and social) determination of the vital activity of living organisms, including humans, is turning ineffective. This concept needs to be redefined as unique, specifying only human beings and characterizing the combination of biological and social factors inherent in them only. The main obstacle to the development of such a concept is natural sciences reductionism in the form of mechanistic determinism. As a result, the main property of all living organisms, namely the ability to actively counteract the influence of the environment while remaining in a cooperative relationship with it, is not taken into account. In animals such activity is carried out by the organs of the body and innate reactions, while in men it is done through artificial tools and cultural experience, with culture embracing and subordinating nature. Therefore, human biosociality is threefold including a human body in its combination of evolutionarily formed biomorphological parameters, the sphere of tools and external nature. Until very recently, this triune integrity was not adequately realized. However, the threats of technogenic origin that arise today encourage the development of a new worldview and a new world attitude. The former consumer attitude to nature should be replaced by conscious and productive manipulation of the three components of human biosociality against the background of purposeful maintenance of its morphological immutability.