Sergei Shevchenko

Name and Surname
Sergei Shevchenko

Affiliation
Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences

Short Biography

Sergei Shevchenko is involved in bioethics and medical humanities as a researcher, educator, and expert. He obtained Ph.D. in philosophy on «Personalized Medicine: Philosophical and Methodological Analyses» at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. He also holds a master’s degree in biology.

Sergei organized academic and public discussions on the rights of future generations, epistemic justice, and human enhancement. In 2020, he published a book entitled “Hope: Found and Invented,” which deals with the history of bacteriophage therapy and the role of collective intellectual virtues in its development.

Research abstract

Cognitive studies show that trauma survivors tend to experience specific forms of memory decline. This is an issue not only for medicine and cognitive science but also for bio- or neuroethics and social justice.

Traumatic experiences cause refugees to impoverish their own cognitive niches for the sake of oblivion. Incessant watching TV and reduction of communication networks with all their negative impact on memory can be strategies for adaptation to the new social environment. This form of adaptation is not a manifestation of either biological or social pathology itself but is a consequence of social pathologies that caused traumatic events and the need to flee from them.

Accordingly, the desire for oblivion among refugees and residence-changers of different ages should not induce a medical or social stigma. We also can consider re-traumatization caused by the need to recall negative experiences as a specific form of epistemic injustice.
Ethical strategies for dealing with such refugees are required, which include respecting their autonomy and dignity as well as creating a new, more inclusive cognitive environment.