Eugenics, Human Variation, and Appeals to Human Nature

Aspirational appeals to human nature convey a view of human nature as unifying, distinguishing, and even celebratory. Such appeals present human nature as what all human beings share in, no matter their other differences, a nature that we might be satisfied with as it is or that we may look to build on or develop. They identify what distinguishes human beings as a group from other kinds of animals (like apes and dogs), from other kinds of living things (like plants and bacteria), and from mere machines (like robots and computers programs). And they present our unified and distinctive nature as valuable and praiseworthy, something that makes human life worthwhile and uplifting. This chapter concentrates on the relationship between such aspirational appeals and their more pernicious operation mediated by processes of eugenification.