Cosmobioethics: Introductory Debate on the Bioethical Aspects of a Cosmic Society

Abstract

The heuristic propulsivity of bioethics in the last thirty years has prompted a significant broadening of the scope of this field: on the methodological level development was noted in the movement from disciplinarity to transdisciplinarity, while at problem level it went from biotechnical challenges to reflection on the integrality of the living world. However, bioethical experimentation still does not take into account problems stemming from humanistic cosmology and cosmology as a natural science — not even within the scope of the integrative bioethics project — which is particularly problematic in regard to the importance of core knowledge. The development of human society towards a merging with the expanse beyond planet Earth, and also the firm connection of the phenomenon of life with the basic structure and dynamic of a perceptible universe, invite us to prepare to direct our attention to bioethical and social–scientific issues in which cosmological elements play an important part. The aim of this article is to put forward a research perspective of cosmobioethics as a help in further broadening our cognitive sensibility to the truth about the (social) complexity of existence on the Earth and the expanse surrounding it. The topic is approached through a multidisciplinary communication of relevant core knowledge by means of the classic philosophical exposition method.