Gender in the philosophical debates on biotechnology

At the beginning of the 21st century many authors agree that bio- and especially gene technology will be a key technology of the future. The notion of the genetic code in which the language of computer science is transposed to the realm of biology, indicates that it tends to fuse to one "technological paradigm" with information technology. This paradigm emerged during the 1960s and 1970s with the microelectronic revolution and the simultaneous development of gene technology and introduces multifold social and cultural transformations. The technological revolution of biological reproduction, food production and of medicine are far-reaching processes with consequences, especially concerning gender relations, not yet to foresee. My project centers on the question how the processes outlined above are articulated in philosophy. It is geared towards a systematical reconstruction of the philosophical interventions on modern biotechnology in order to analyze a) contemporary processes of negotiating gender relations and b) shifts and transformations of the field. Thus, this research project contributes to the self- reflection of contemporary philosophy and, consequently, to a redefinition of philosophical competence in a changing order of knowledge. Concentrating on dominant lines in the contemporary philosophical field, the leading question is how traditional philosophical categories such as "man/human being", "nature", "mind", "consciousness", "matter", "time" and "space" are re-articulated how these categories are implicitly or explicitly articulated in terms of gender relations. The analysis focuses on strategies of naturalization and de-naturalization and the formation of new constructions of subjectivity.