[We] can never adequately understand a human performance as a
product independent of the performer.  However outwardly focused
the performance may be, its essential meaning includes the self's
development through its own exertions.  We express ourselves not
only to achieve something "out there", but also because something
"in here" drives us to it, and in the expressing we strengthen and
deepen our inner powers of expression.  As Kass puts it, "our
genuine happiness requires that there be little gap, if any, between
the dancer and the dance".  And the same principle applies to our
assessment of the achievements of others:  we rightly value every
human expression, from the pianist's recital to the scholar's text
to the quarterback's athletic artistry, not merely as an external
product, but as part of the unfolding revelation of an expressing
self.  Therein lies its ultimate significance.  Conversely, whatever
does not arise from the expressing self is not fundamental.  There
are, in the end, no worthwhile "things" in the world; there are
only worthwhile doings.

Stephen L. Talbott, Editor:  
NETFUTURE: Technology and Human Responsibility
Issue #150     
October 7, 2003

quoting

	- Leon Kass
		"Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls: 
		Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Perfection"
		*The New Atlantis*, Spring 2003