Abstract

This paper is inspired by Peter Sloterdijk's book Regeln für den Menschenpark ('Regulations for the Human Park') which is available as appended, original translation. It seeks to elucidate Sloterdijk's work, assess the theses he posits therein, and sets forth an overview on crucial developments pertaining to human society, i.e., the human park. The developments focussed on are relevant to the humanistic concern addressed by Sloterdijk and comprise General Systems Theory, human genetic engineering, bio-information society, and humanism. The work is supplemented by extensive, personal commentaries as well as a sample of voices urging for prudence in matters of scientific-technological enterprising. The concern lies with the question how and which morality is still regulative of human behaviour in a time when literary humanism as a formative, moral force has been superseded by the permissive, electronic media and their uninhibiting forces. The question that arises is: 'If humanism is no longer a reliable agent of human domestication, what tames human beings?' Sloterdijk suggests a harking back to the wisdom of old in order to find clues to the resolution of this domestic predicament of today and implicitly asks whether human genetic engineering could become a domesticating force (an anthropo-technology) that is better captured by a regulative codex lest it might lead to political abuse. While it offers some critical and perhaps provocative reflections on the issues in question, the paper is chiefly suggestive and expository and marked by ambivalence.