Ideological Origins of the Project of Human Nature Improvement in the Philosophical Heritage of F. Bacon and R. Descartes

The article is devoted to the consideration of historical and cultural prerequisites of modern ideas about the “improvement” of human beings. Analyzing the worldview and theoretical aspects of the transhumanist discourse, the authors note that the origins of the ideological platform of the project of improving human nature are contained in the depths of modern philosophy. The aspirations to remake nature by subjugating it gave rise to ideas about the fundamental possibility of extending rational creative activity to the human being himself, about turning him into an object of scientific design and transformation. The authors focus on the philosophical heritage of F. Bacon and R. Descartes. It is noted that, being expressors of advanced views of their epoch, the thinkers in many respects prepared a platform for the formation and development of ideas about the omnipotence of scientific and technological progress and to a certain extent anticipated the subject of scientific research and high-tech inventions of 20th – 21st centuries. The ideas of Bacon and Descartes about the progress of medical science, the possibility of improving human nature (increasing life expectancy, increasing mental abilities, treatment of diseases previously considered incurable), the problems of euthanasia, the creation of anthropomorphic mechanisms, etc. are considered. It is shown that the brilliant minds of that era, having the ability to look into the distant future of science and technology, were able to a certain extent to foresee some directions of their development related to the creation of the techno sphere and the potential for “technical” human improvement. F. Bacon and R. Descartes are spokesmen for the ideas that, several centuries later, influenced the formation of transhumanist concepts linking the prospects of man with the technogenic change of his natural-biological basis. Their projects of “realizing everything possible” (meaning the use of science to achieve human domination over nature) still serve as a source of inspiration for men of science and technocrats. In recent decades, these ideas have acquired a new sound, a new impetus of development due to the opportunities offered by technoscience.

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