Citation

Bishop JP. Stud. Christ. Ethics 2019; 32(1): 20-35.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0953946818807462

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Technology tends toward perpetual innovation. Technology, enabled by both political and economic structures, propels society forward in a kind of technological evolution. The moment a novel piece of technology is in place, immediately innovations are attempted in a process of unending betterment. Bernard Stiegler suggests that, contra Heidegger, it is not being-towarddeath that shapes human perception of time, life, death, and meaning. Rather, it is technological innovation that shapes human perception of time, life, death, and meaning. In fact, for Stiegler, human evolution has always been part of technological evolution. While one can quibble with the notion of human-technology co-evolution, there is something to be said for the way in which human perception of time, of ageing, and of death seems to be judged against the horizon of perpetual evolution of technological innovation. In this technological imaginary, of which modern medicine is constituent, ageing and death seemingly may be infinitely deferred, and it is this innovating deferral that shapes the contemporary social imaginary around ageing and death in modern medicine. Yet, the reality of living (which is to say ageing) and dying always manifests itself differently than the scripts given to us by the technological imaginary with its myth of endless innovation. In fact, I shall argue that, where the Church created an ars moriendi, the technological imaginary gives us an ars ad mortem when it becomes clear that ageing and death cannot be infinitely deferred. And further, I shall argue that the Church must revivify its ars vivendi--that is to say, its liturgies, its arts, its technics--as a counter narrative to the myth of perpetual innovation that shapes the technological imaginary. © The Author(s) 2018.

Language: en

Keywords

Time; Assisted suicide; Ageing; Ars moriendi; Ars ad mortem; Tecnics