Promotional Information

Arguments against radical enhancement have too often in the past been characterized by irrationalism and mysticism. Nicholas Agar presents the first cogent case for the rationality of opposing radical enhancement. Moving easily between science and philosophy, he argues for a species-relative conception of valuable experiences, according to which we have a strong reason to remain human. This central claim is bolstered by a host of other arguments, which will ensure that Humanity's End will become a central reference point for debates over the desirability of radical enhancement. -- Neil Levy, Oxford Centre for Neuroethics Nicholas Agar has written an excellent introduction to the moral challenges of our transition to a posthuman future, engagingly told by contrasting the work of four very different transhumanists. Humanity's End joins Agar's Liberal Eugenics on the must-read list for those interested in the future of the human race. -- James J. Hughes, Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

About the Author

Nicholas Agar is Professor of Ethics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of Humanity's End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement and Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense of Limits, both published by the MIT Press.

Reviews

Penetrating and lucid…This is the definitive critique of what [Agar] calls 'radical enhancement.'
*Monash Bioethic Review*

An evenhanded treatment of an area ripe for serious philosophical scrutiny. Agar's analysis is philosophically astute, empirically informed, and historically shrewd. It is a welcome corrective to the occasional extravagancies of the human sciences.
*Quarterly Review of Biology*

Agar's book is a valuable survey of the most important interlocutors in the conversation about posthumanism...should be taken seriously...one may well be persuaded by Agar's arguments.
*Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies*