About the project

The CFS is one of the partners to secure a 36 mill. DKK grant from the University of Copenhagen’s dedicated 2016-program for the project “The Genomic History of Denmark.” The CFS is a partner in this multidisciplinary project, in which researchers from the Centre for GeoGenetics in close cooperation with colleagues from institutes at the University of Copenhagen will make Denmark the first country in the world to map its evolutionary, demographic and health history - from the earliest settlers through to modern times. In the framework of this project, the task of the CFS will be to investigate the impact that knowledge of our genomic history may have on our personal and collective self-understanding.

For a few years now, population genomics has been having a high impact in the study of humanity’s history and prehistory. In this context, DNA is often presented to the public as the key that can unlock the mysteries and answer the questions of our past and present: Who am I? Where do I come from? However, whether and to what extent genetics can provide answers to these questions is not easily determined. Some of this uncertainty is due to the complexity of research methods employed and answers provided by population genomics. But more importantly, the answers one can obtain from DNA do not address all aspects of the above questions on identity and origin. The philosophical work to be carried out in the framework of this project will seek to shed light on the extent to which population genomics can contribute to answering identity questions, on the role that it is asked or expected to play in answering them, and on possible ways of bringing real potentialities and expectations adequately in line.

In order to start addressing these issues philosophically, it is necessary to clarify the aspects of personal identity that are at stake in this sort of cases. Many of the dimensions of the questions about personal identity (who am I?) and origins (where do I come from?) that can meaningfully be addressed by genetics are closely connected with issues of group membership and identification with specific groups (among the most obvious: families, nations and ethnic groups, for example). This project will investigate the different elements which can impact group membership, and which become interwoven in narratives of group belonging that contribute to shaping self-identity. Some of the specific philosophical questions will be:

• What is the relation between personal (self-)identity and social identity (group-membership)?
• What kinds of group-memberships are mediated or determined by biological facts such as genetics?
• Is it possible to integrate genetic findings in a system of group belonging without leaning towards a biological essentialism that leaves the door open to racism and related forms of xenophobia? How can genetic findings be presented so as to avoid that risk?