Technical metaphor of railroad switch and communicative action
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/pen.v71.i269.y2015.023Keywords:
Jürgen Habermas, Railroad Switch, Continuity, Communicative Action, Call.Abstract
The operation of a railroad switch serves as a metaphor in Jürgen Habermas’ discussion on preimplantation diagnosis. This article analyses the agreement between such technical metaphor and the notions of continuity and communicative action, while arguing its inconsistency with certain
statements on the status of the human embryo. Taken seriously, the «railroad switch» metaphor allows us to talk about an emergent communicative action in terms of the call experienced by a rational agent as a base for his or her calling an unborn human being.
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