科学与人文嵌合下的生命意义--《科学能否解释生命?》评述

The Meaning of Life under the Nesting of Science and Humanities--A review of Can Science Make Sense of Life?

科学的进步,特别是生物学的进步,塑造了我们对生命及其意义的理解,科学语言也逐渐成为一种描述性和规范性的力量,并在与法律、伦理、政治和经济的持续互动中,逐步获得了对生命解释的垄断地位。希拉·贾萨诺夫的《科学能否解释生命?》基于历史的脉络梳理,阐释科学如何在“生命”议题中获得话语权统治,反思与批判后基因时代生物学优越性的后果,呼吁人们从对“生命是什么”的探讨转向“生命是为了什么”,并认为应走向科学与人文共同决策下的生命意义。

Advances in science,particularly in biology,have shaped our understanding of life and its meaning.The language of science has also gradually become a descriptive and normative force and,in its ongoing interaction with law,ethics,politics and economics,has gradually acquired a monopoly on the interpretation of life.Based on a reflection and critique of the superiority of biology in the post-genetic era,Sheila Jasanoff's Can Science Make Sense of Life?is a book that explains how science has gained a discursive reign over the topic of"life"in a historical context,and reflects on the consequences of this empowerment,calling for a shift from a discussion of“what life is”to“what life is for?”and thus moving to a future of life in which science and the humanities make decisions together.