Existential Limits

In exploring the place of limits within a well-lived human life, this first chapter begins at the most general level with “existential limits,” which are limits with respect to the given, that is, to what exists. This chapter explores two fundamental existential stances, or orientations toward the given, which play a key role throughout the book. One stance is the choosing-controlling stance. All mature human beings adopt this stance to some extent in their efforts to improve their lives and the world around them through controlling, transforming, and overcoming the given. However, at the extreme, this stance can give expression to a “Promethean” project of “playing God” by seeking mastery over the given. The other basic existential stance is at odds with this Promethean project: it is referred to as the accepting-appreciating stance. By accepting and appreciating the given, this stance imposes limits on the choosing-controlling stance. While acknowledging an important role for a choosing-controlling stance in human life, this chapter argues that the accepting-appreciating stance toward the given should be regarded as primary in several ways and discusses specific limiting virtues—namely, humility, reverence, contentment, and loyalty—that give proper expression to this stance. This chapter begins with a discussion of prominent defenses of the Promethean project of mastery in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and, more recently, Ronald Dworkin in his argument in favor of genetic engineering, and then it turns to make the case against the Promethean project.