Playing God?- Cultural Change and the Ethics of Human Genetic Engineering

扮演上帝？-文化变革与人类基因工程伦理

• 批准号: 9701966
• 负责人: Robert Wuthnow
• 金额: $ 0.57万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-04-01 至 1999-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9701966&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Playing; God; Cultural; Change; Ethics

9701966 Wuthnow In recent years there has been a renaissance in the sociological examination of cultural changes in society such as the increase in individualism at the expense of collectivism (e.g., Bellah et al., 1985) and in people's use of human centered over theistic legitimization for their actions (e.g., Hunter 1991). However, in these studies society-wide level of analyses, macro-level explanations, and lack of comparable measurements of the past and present culture prevent deeper understanding of the processes underlying cultural change. This Doctoral Dissertation research investigates the micro-foundations of this broader cultural change through examining one limited public issue --the debates about the propriety of the genetic modifications of humans. The primary data are from a systematic study of the printed debates on this topic from 1958 to present. Specifically, a sample of all books, book chapters, and articles produced on this subject will be analyzed using the citation study method. In this method patterns (or raw numbers of instances) among citations are used to evaluate hypotheses about the construction of knowledge. Additional information will be collected through interviews with writers of books and articles that are most cited during specific time periods. Lastly, case studies will be done on two commissions, one state created (The President's Commission) and one voluntary sector created (The United Methodist Church), that were empowered to discuss this issue. Through examining changes in the debate on genetic engineering, this research will increase our understanding of the processes involved in broader social change. ****

9701966然而，近年来，社会学对社会文化变化的审视出现了复兴，例如个人主义的增加而牺牲了集体主义(例如，Bellah等人，1985年)，以及人们使用以有神论合法化为中心的人的行为(例如，Hunter，1991年)。然而，在这些研究中，全社会层面的分析、宏观层面的解释，以及缺乏对过去和现在文化的可比衡量，阻碍了对文化变化潜在过程的深入理解。这项博士论文研究通过研究一个有限的公共问题--关于人类基因修改是否合适的辩论--来调查这种更广泛的文化变化的微观基础。主要资料来自于对1958年至今关于这一主题的印刷辩论的系统研究。具体地说，关于这个主题的所有书籍、书籍章节和文章的样本将使用引文研究方法进行分析。在这种方法中，引用中的模式(或原始实例数量)被用来评估关于知识构建的假设。其他信息将通过采访在特定时间段被引用最多的书籍和文章的作者来收集。最后，将对两个委员会进行案例研究，一个国家(总统委员会)和一个自愿部门(联合卫理公会)，这两个委员会有权讨论这一问题。通过考察基因工程辩论中的变化，这项研究将增加我们对更广泛的社会变化所涉及的过程的理解。****