Overview
Americans have always been the world's most anxiously enthusiastic consumers of ""enhancement technologies."" Prozac, Viagra, and Botox injections are only the latest manifestations of a familiar pattern: enthusiastic adoption, public hand-wringing, an occasional congressional hearing, and calls for self-reliance. In a brilliant diagnosis of our reactions to self-improvement technologies, Carl Elliott asks questions that illuminate deep currents in the American character: Why do we feel uneasy about these drugs, procedures, and therapies even while we embrace them? Where do we draw the line between self and society? Why do we seek self-realization in ways so heavily influenced by cultural conformity?
Full Product Details
Author: Carl Elliott ,
Peter D. Kramer
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 14.20cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 21.10cm
Weight: 0.489kg
ISBN: 9780393325652
ISBN 10: 0393325652
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 17 June 2004
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
A superbly crafted book. An absorbing read that probes our foibles and uncertainties with gentleness, wisdom, and humor. Elliott grips the reader's attention all the way. An impressive achievement.
Elliott raises serious questions about the scope and nature of medical care... [He] intertwines his discussion of enhancement technologies with an examination of important issues in bioethics and philosophy. British Medical Journal Behind the laid-back journalistic charm of author Carl Elliott, a professor of bioethics and philosophy at the University of Minnesota, lurks a thinker of considerable slyness and force. For Elliott's proper subject is not technology per se; it is goodness. New Scientist A subtle, yet provocative book. Judy Foreman, The New England Journal of Medicine One man's mutilation, it seems, is another's self-discovery. The Economist
A superbly crafted book. -- Washington Post Book World An absorbing read that probes our foibles and uncertainties with gentleness, wisdom, and humor. -- Kirkus Reviews Elliott grips the reader's attention all the way. -- Scientific American An impressive achievement. -- Metapsychology
Author Information
Carl Elliott is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, he is the author of Better Than Well and White Coat, Black Hat. He lives in Minnesota.
