scholarly journals Moral Perfection and the Demand for Human Enhancement

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Warmbier
Keyword(s):  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Biological Factor ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Moral Perfection ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Genetic Interventions ◽  
Moral Choices

In this article I discuss one of the most significant areas of bioethical interest, which is the problem of moral enhancement. Since I claim that the crucial issue in the current debate on human bioenhancement is the problem of agency, I bring out and examine the conditions of possibility of selfunderstanding, acting subjects attributing responsible authorship for their actions to themselves. I shall argue that the very idea of moral enhancement, properly understood, fails to justify the claims that enhancing the “biological” factor that plays a part in the process of making moral choices, whether through biomedical or genetic interventions, will actually increase the probability of having “morally better future motives”.

scholarly journals The Experimental Psychology of Moral Enhancement: We Should If We Could, But We Can't

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 313-328
Author(s):  
Sylvia Terbeck ◽  
Kathryn B. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Psychological Assessment ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Moral Concepts ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Experimental Findings

AbstractIn this chapter we will review experimental evidence related to pharmacological moral enhancement. Firstly, we will present our recent study in which we found that a drug called propranolol could change moral judgements. Further research, which also investigated this, found similar results. Secondly, we will discuss the limitations of such approaches, when it comes to the idea of general “human enhancement”. Whilst promising effects on certain moral concepts might be beneficial to the development of theoretical moral psychology, enhancement of human moral behaviour in general – to our current understanding – has more side-effects than intended effects, making it potentially harmful. We give an overview of misconceptions when taking experimental findings beyond the laboratory and discuss the problems and solutions associated with the psychological assessment of moral behaviour. Indeed, how is morality “measured” in psychology, and are those measures reliable?

scholarly journals The current debate: (C+M) E and ultimate harm

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Vojin Rakic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Ultimate Harm

Persson and Savulescu (2011b) is a largely successful defense of the position promoted in Persson and Savulescu (2008) against Fenton?s critique of this position in Fenton (2009). However, one of Fenton?s essential censures has remained without response: if moral enhancement (ME) is to occur at the genetic or biological level, as Persson and Savulescu suppose it can and ought to, it will not be possible without significant scientific progress, including cognitive enhancement (CE) by bio-medical means. I will offer a response here to this critique Fenton raised-a response Persson and Savulecu did not give. It will be based on the concept of ?integrated neuroenhancement?, abbreviated (C+M) E.

scholarly journals Fit for work? Redefining ‘Normal’ and ‘Extreme’ through human enhancement technologies

Organization ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Bloomfield ◽  
Karen Dale
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Smart Drugs ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
Potential Use ◽  
Advanced Capitalist

This article focuses on how the categories of ‘normal’ and ‘extreme’ in the context of work might be renegotiated through the development of human enhancement technologies which aim to enable the human body to be pushed beyond its biological limits. The ethical dimensions of human enhancement technologies have been widely considered, but there has been little debate about their role in the broader world of employment—nor, conversely, the recognition that prevailing employment relationships might shape the development and uptake of such technologies. Addressing the organisation of work within ‘advanced’ capitalist economies, this article considers the arguments for the potential use of cognitive enhancers, so-called ‘smart drugs’, in various domains of work such as surgery and transportation. We argue that the development of human enhancement technologies might foster the normalisation of ‘working extremely’—enabling longer working hours, greater effort or increased concentration—and yet at the same time promote the conditions of possibility under which workers are able to work on themselves so as to go beyond the norm, becoming ‘extreme workers’. Looking at human enhancement technologies not only enables us to see how they might facilitate ever greater possibilities for working extremely but also helps us to understand the conditions under which cultures of extreme work become the norm and how workers them/ourselves accept or even embrace such work.

scholarly journals Arizona Education Tax Credit and Hidden Considerations of Justice

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele S. Moses
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Tax Credit ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Recent Movement ◽  
Credit Law

The current debate over market-based ideas for educational reform is examined, focusing specifically on the recent movement toward education tax credits. Viewing the Arizona education tax credit law as a voucher plan in sheep's clothing, I argue that the concept of justice underlying the law is a crucial issue largely missing from the school choice debate. I question the libertarian conception of justice assumed by voucher and tax credit advocates, and argue instead that a contemporary liberal democratic conception of justice ought to undergird attempts at school reform. A call for educators and policymakers to concentrate energies on efforts to help needy students rather than on efforts to channel tax dollars toward self- interested ends concludes the article.

The just city. Three background issues: Institutional justice and spatial justice, social justice and distributive justice, concept of justice and conceptions of justice

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Moroni
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Planning Theory ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Urban Institutions

In the fields of planning theory and human geography, there is a growing discussion of the just city. The impression is that in order to continue the discussion of the crucial issue of the just city, certain methodological considerations and precautions are necessary. The article is focused on three in particular: (a) (urban) institutions as the first subject of justice, (b) the incomplete overlap between social justice and distributive justice, (c) the distinction between the concept and the conceptions of social justice. The impression is that these three issues are not always recognised, or at least not always to the fullest extent, in the current debate in planning theory.

scholarly journals ‘Beyond’ Human Enhancement — Taking the Developing Country’s Perspective Seriously

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vorathep Sachdev
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

AbstractBioethicists and philosophers dominate the on-going debate on human enhancement. They have debated the definition of human enhancement as well as the potential impacts of human enhancement technologies (such as pharmaceutical enhancements or pre-natal selection). These discussions have percolated, through bioethics bodies and bioethics recommendations, policy makers and have eventually been translated into policy. While some suggestions have been based largely in Western liberal democracies, others have deliberated the geopolitical consequences of human enhancement technologies. This paper argues that the present debate currently lacks perspectives from developing countries. It begins by introducing the current debate on human enhancement and recognizes Allen Buchanan’s well-raised concerns on how these technologies may potentially cause new injustices for low- and middle-income countries (‘developing countries’). It then provides two arguments calling for further research into human enhancement from the perspective of developing countries. First, this paper will argue that the current frames with which enhancement technologies are viewed are inherently neoliberal and require change. The second argument shows how the potential impacts of human enhancement technologies in developing countries have not been fully realized by analyzing how human enhancement technologies will impact Thailand, a developing country.

scholarly journals Identidad práctica y reconocimiento. El debate contemporáneo y el modelo fichteano. Practical Identity and Recognition. The Contemporary Debate and Fichte’s Model

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro G. Vigo
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Intentional Action ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Johann Gottlieb Fichte ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Practical Identity ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility

En el presente trabajo me propongo examinar la conexión entre dos nociones que juegan un papel central en el actual debate en el ámbito de la filosofía práctica: las de identidad práctica y reconocimiento, a la luz de los aportes que proceden de la concepción elaborada por Johann Gottlieb Fichte. El recurso a Fichte se explica poco menos que por sí solo. Fichte no sólo ha iniciado la línea de pensamiento dentro de la cual la noción de reconocimiento adquiere un protagonismo central en la reflexión concerniente a los fundamentos de la normatividad propia del ámbito práctico. Además, su concepción pone de relieve el papel del reconocimiento como una de las más elementales condiciones de posibilidad de toda genuina agencia. In the present article I propose to examine the connection between two notions that play a central role in the current debate about practical philosophy: practical identity and recognition. Both of them in the light of the contributions developed by Johann Gottlieb Fichte. The use of Fichte is explained by itself. Fichte has not only started a line of thought in which the notion of recognition acquires a central role in the reflection concerning the sources of normativity in the proper domain of intentional action. In addition, his conception highlights the role of recognition as one of the most basic conditions of possibility of every genuine agency. 

scholarly journals Technological moral enhancement or traditional moral progress? Why not both?

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 405-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joao Fabiano
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Moral Progress ◽  
New Challenges

A new argument has been made against moral enhancement by authors who are otherwise in favour of human enhancement. Additionally, they share the same evolutionary toolkit for analysing human traits as well as the belief that our current morality is unfit to deal with modern problems, such as climate change and nuclear proliferation. The argument is put forward by Buchanan and Powell and states that other paths to moral progress are enough to deal with these problems. Given the likely costs and risks involved with developing moral enhancement, this argument implies moral enhancement is an unpromising enterprise. After mentioning proposed solutions to such modern problems, I will argue that moral enhancement would help implement any of them. I will then detail Buchanan and Powell’s new argument disfavouring moral enhancement and argue that it makes too bold assumptions about the efficacy of traditional moral progress. For instance, it overlooks how that progress was to achieve even in relatively successful cases such as the abolition of slavery. Traditional moral progress is likely to require assistance from non-traditional means in order to face new challenges.

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