Moral Enhancement Research Articles

Biomedical moral enhancement for psychopaths.

This study examines the ethical permissibility of biomedical moral enhancement (BME) for psychopaths, considering both coercive and voluntary approaches. To do so, I will first briefly explain what psychopaths are and some normative implications of these facts. I will then ethically examine three scenarios of BME for psychopaths: (1) coercive BME for non-criminal psychopaths, (2) coercive BME for psychopathic offenders, and (3) voluntary BME for psychopathic offenders. I will argue that coercive BME for non-criminal psychopaths is ethically problematic due to issues of cost, invasion of privacy, and stigmatic effects of compulsory diagnosis. Similarly, I will argue that coercive BME for criminals is impermissible due to violations of the rights to bodily and mental integrity. However, I will show that voluntary BME for offenders may be ethically permissible under certain conditions, challenging the critique that the consent of vulnerable prisoners cannot be considered fully voluntary. I argue that when an offender is provided with sufficient medical and legal information, incentives such as the possibility of parole review based on BME results do not preclude the voluntariness of consent. Ultimately, I aim to advance the debate on BME for psychopaths by delineating and defending conditions for the ethical permissibility of voluntary BME.

Transhumanism, Human Moral Enhancement, and Virtues

Moral transhumanism is a project that aims to enhance human beings by using modern technology in a morally beneficial way. This article discusses the problems and ethical dilemmas raised by transhumanism, notably whether (moral) virtues may be enhanced in the proposed manner. To achieve this end, moral transhumanism primarily proposes the use of genetic technology and pharmacology. Regarding moral virtues, the article suggests that sensitivity to reasons is a fundamental feature of human moral cognition. Enhancing moral virtues would diminish this sensitivity or assign it a superfluous role while jeopardizing the person’s autonomy and self-determination.

Why Moral Bioenhancement Cannot Reliably Produce Virtue.

Moral bioenhancement presents the possibility of enhancing morally desirable emotions and dispositions. While some scholars have proposed that moral bioenhancement can produce virtue, we argue that within a virtue ethics framework moral bioenhancement cannot reliably produce virtue. Moreover, on a virtue ethics framework, the pursuit of moral bioenhancement carries moral risks. To make this argument, we consider three aspects of virtue-its motivational, rational, and behavioral components. In order to be virtuous, we argue, a person must (i) take pleasure in doing the right thing and have the correct motivational attitudes; (ii) reason correctly about what is called for in a particular ethical dilemma; and (iii) intentionally and continuously practice and cultivate virtues. These dimensions of morality-in short: precisely those emphasized in a virtue ethics framework-cannot be consistently or reliably met using existing moral bioenhancement technology.

Covert Moral Enhancement: Are Dirty Hands Needed to Save the Planet?

ABSTRACT Michael Walzer’s article ‘Political action: the problem of dirty hands’ initiated a new wave of discussion over a persistent problem in moral philosophy: are there situations in which ethical rules must be relaxed so as to bring about a greater good? In this article, we consider whether this ‘dirty hands’ approach may be applied to our current climate crisis. One proposed solution to the problem of global warming is the administration of moral enhancements to the population. Assuming that the administration of moral enhancements is a necessary condition in the prevention of a climate crisis, Parker Crutchfield argues that this procedure ought to be covert. This implies lying to the public, and such dishonesty amounts to immoral behavior. We conclude that despite the severity of global warming, there is no justification for a dirty hands approach. Lying to the public in order to save the planet would probably create bigger problems, and it would ultimately be very counterproductive in trying to save the planet.

Free will, quarantines, and moral enhancements: neuroabolitionism as an alternative to criminal law

This article critically navigates the complex debate surrounding free will and criminal justice, challenging traditional assumptions of moral responsibility and culpability. By exploring hard incompatibilism, which denies free will, I question the ethical justification of punitive sanctions and critically analyze the alternative models such as the public health-quarantine and nonconsensual neurobiological “moral” enhancements. These alternatives, however, introduce practical and ethical concerns. Advocating for a neuro-abolitionist perspective, through the proposition of five initial principles/debates, the article suggests a shift in integrating sociological abolitionism with insights from neuroscience. The discussion extends to the implications of hard incompatibilism and the pursuit of more humane and effective approaches to deviant behavior, ultimately calling for the abolition of punitive models and criminal law itself.

Подходы к нравственному биоулучшению в классической и либеральной евгенике

Background:The general trendtowards the moralization of society, associated both with attempts to overcome the state of social and political crises, and determined by the general tendency to accept the Other, determines the need to address issues of mor-al improvement of moral agents. At first glance, biological improvement seems more reliable, because in the future it is more stable and predictable. In this regard, it seems extremely important to turn to the tradition of eugenic discussions. Aim: To analyze approaches to improving amoral agent using biological methods in domestic and world science.Materials and methods: To achievethe goal of the work, materials from the Galton School of Eugenics, policy articles of the Russian Eugenics Society by N.K. were analyzed. Koltsov and the modern discourse of liberal eugenics.Results: On the one hand, the biological improvement of a moral agent seems to be more predictable (in the case of relevant re-search) and more sustainable. On the other hand, history shows us the risks of this approach. The failure of classical eugenics, which degenerated in Europe into Nazi practices, and political decisions close to them in the USA seems obvious. Modern «liberal eugenics», in attempts to solve these problems, runs into the risks of discrimination. Conclusion: For more than a century, moral bioenhancement scholars have failed to offer specific criteria for a moral agent. Based on the analysis of eugenic discourse, the article raises ethical questions, the answers to which must be given to the scientific community before conducting practical experiments

Ethical Empowerment: Integrating Malay Local Wisdom with VCT to Fortify Students' Moral Character in History Learning

As juvenile delinquency rates rise in Indonesia, addressing the underlying moral degradation among adolescents becomes crucial. This study investigates the integration of Tanjak Melayu's local wisdom with Value Clarification Technique (VCT) in history education as a strategy for moral character enhancement in students. Using a qualitative ethnographic approach, data was collected through observation, interviews, document reviews, and validity tests, with data analysis performed via triangulation. The study identifies key values of Tanjak Melayu—dignity, politeness, and attractiveness—that can be effectively incorporated into history lessons using VCT. This integration shows a positive impact on student's moral character, providing not only knowledge but also facilitating practical learning tasks. The incorporation of Tanjak Melayu values into educational settings via VCT not only preserves cultural heritage but also actively promotes moral virtues among students. The findings suggest that VCT can be a dynamic tool in moral education, enhancing student engagement and ethical development. This study underscores the potential of culturally integrated education technologies in addressing adolescent behavioral issues. By embedding local cultural values into the curriculum, educational institutions can play a pivotal role in shaping the moral landscape of the next generation. This approach offers a scalable model for similar interventions across diverse educational contexts, aiming to curb juvenile delinquency through enhanced character education. The successful integration of Tanjak Melayu values into history education via VCT demonstrates a viable path towards improving the moral character of students, suggesting that similar cultural and technological adaptations in educational curricula could be beneficial on a broader scale.

Shall We Sanctify Ourselves with Biomedical Technology? A Reformed Appraisal of Moral Bioenhancement

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to develop a constructive dialogue between moral bioenhancement and Reformed theology of sanctification. According to Reformed theology, human beings are first sanctified by God objectively (passive sanctification) and consequently seek subjectively for their own growth in moral life (active sanctification). Moral bioenhancement and sanctification, thus, share a commonality, that is, emphasizing moral betterment. As such, to the extent that passive sanctification is not obliterated but rather prioritized, moral bioenhancement can be viewed as a consequence of a good work performed freely by the sanctified person to seek for moral growth in the imitation of Christ.

What COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Disparity Reveals About Solidarity

What COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Disparity Reveals About Solidarity

Socratic nudges, virtual moral assistants and the problem of autonomy

AbstractMany of our daily activities are now made more convenient and efficient by virtual assistants, and the day when they can be designed to instruct us in certain skills, such as those needed to make moral judgements, is not far off. In this paper we ask to what extent it would be ethically acceptable for these so-called virtual assistants for moral enhancement to use subtle strategies, known as “nudges”, to influence our decisions. To achieve our goal, we will first characterise nudges in their standard use and discuss the debate they have generated around their possible manipulative character, establishing three conditions of manipulation. Secondly, we ask whether nudges can occur in moral virtual assistants that are not manipulative. After critically analysing some proposed virtual assistants, we argue in favour of one of them, given that by pursuing an open and neutral moral enhancement, it promotes and respects the autonomy of the person as much as possible. Thirdly, we analyse how nudges could enhance the functioning of such an assistant, and evaluate them in terms of their degree of threat to the subject’s autonomy and their level of transparency. Finally, we consider the possibility of using motivational nudges, which not only help us in the formation of moral judgements but also in our moral behaviour.

Understanding the impact of ethical leadership on followers' voice: mediation of moral identity and moderation of proactive personality

PurposeDrawing upon social learning theory (SLT), the study examines the consequences of ethical leadership on followers' voice behavior facets (promotive and prohibitive). The study tests hypotheses about the processing mechanism (moral identity) and the boundary condition (proactive personality) to understand these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected time-lagged survey data through an online structured questionnaire from 182 respondents. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to ensure the validity and reliability of the data. Moreover, structural equation modeling was run to test the hypotheses using AMOS.FindingsEthical leadership positively affects followers' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior via the psychological mechanism of moral identity. Proactive personality moderates the moral identity – promotive and moral identity – prohibitive voice relationships, such that these relations are stronger when the individuals are high on proactive personality.Research limitations/implicationsRobust evidence of a genuine cause-and-effect relationship may not be yielded owing to cross-sectional and self-reported data at the follower level of analysis. Future researchers can use dyadic, longitudinal and experimental designs to overcome these limitations. Organizations targeting to increase voice behavior can benefit from maintaining ethical leaders and proactive followers at the workplace.Originality/valueThe study significantly contributes to the ethical leadership and voice behavior literature. Ethical leadership enhances followers' promotive/prohibitive voice behaviors through their moral identity enhancement. The paper also confirmed that a proactive personality is a critical boundary condition in these relationships. Empirical evidence from the Eastern context has been added, and research directions have also been provided.

On an intuition regarding the acquisition of moral virtue [English translation

This article concerns the issue of the moral enhancement of humans through technology. I propose a thought experiment that allows us to identify a new reason against implementing such enhancement. Achieving virtue through a path that involves one’s own effort in making and implementing morally sound decisions deserves greater respect. It also allows us to acknowledge that we are (co)authors of who we become morally. This kind of self-creation seems to be an important part of a meaningful life, and artificial moral enhancement deprives us of it.
 
 

How moral bioenhancement affects perceived praiseworthiness.

Psychological literature indicates that actions performed with the assistance of cognition-enhancing biomedical technologies are often deemed to be less praiseworthy than similar actions performed without such assistance. This study examines (i) whether this result extends to the bioenhancement of moral capacities, and (ii) if so, what explains the effect of moral bioenhancement on perceived praiseworthiness. The findings indicate that actions facilitated by morally bioenhanced individuals are considered less deserving of praise than similar actions facilitated by 'traditional' moral enhancement-for example, moral self-education. This diminished praise does not seem to be driven by an aversion to (moral) bioenhancement per se. Instead, it appears to be primarily attributable to a perceived lack of effort exerted by bioenhanced individuals in the course of their moral enhancement. Our findings advance the philosophical discourse on the foundations of praise in the context of moral bioenhancement by elucidating the empirical basis underlying some assumptions commonly employed to argue for or against the permissibility of moral bioenhancement.

Too good for this world: moral bioenhancement and the ethics of making moral misfits

Persson and Savulescu argue that moral bioenhancement is not only morally permissible; in some cases, it is morally obligatory. In this article, I introduce a new reason to worry about...

Empathy training through virtual reality: moral enhancement with the freedom to fall?

Empathy training through virtual reality: moral enhancement with the freedom to fall?

Moral Bioenhancement for Space: Should We Enhance Morally Future Deep-Space Astronauts and Space Settlers?

ABSTRACT The idea of moral bioenhancement has been discussed in recent years by ethicists and philosophers. While such discussion covers many different issues on Earth, they have not yet been considered in the context of future human space missions. In this paper, we discuss the bioethics of biomedical moral enhancement for space whether it is possible, probable, and preferable. We show that the ethical context of moral bioenhancement for space differs from analogical contexts on Earth. We point out that space exploration policy should take into account the possibility of moral bioenhancement.

A comparative review on neuroethical issues in neuroscientific and neuroethical journals.

This study is a pilot literature review that compares the interest of neuroethicists and neuroscientists. It aims to determine whether there is a significant gap between the neuroethical issues addressed in philosophical neuroethics journals and neuroscience journals. We retrieved 614 articles from two specialist neuroethics journals (Neuroethics and AJOB Neuroscience) and 82 neuroethics-focused articles from three specialist neuroscience journals (Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, and Nature Reviews Neuroscience). We classified these articles in light of the neuroethical issue in question before we compared the neuroethical issues addressed in philosophical neuroethics with those addressed by neuroscientists. A notable result is a parallelism between them as a general tendency. Neuroscientific articles cover most neuroethical issues discussed by philosophical ethicists and vice versa. Subsequently, there are notable discrepancies between the two bodies of neuroethics literature. For instance, theoretical questions, such as the ethics of moral enhancement and the philosophical implications of neuroscientific findings on our conception of personhood, are more intensely discussed in philosophical-neuroethical articles. Conversely, neuroscientific articles tend to emphasize practical questions, such as how to successfully integrate ethical perspectives into scientific research projects and justifiable practices of animal-involving neuroscientific research. These observations will help us settle the common starting point of the attempt at "ethics integration" in emerging neuroscience, contributing to better governance design and neuroethical practice.

Why moral bioenhancement in future space missions may not be a good idea: The perspective of feminist bioethics of space exploration

Moral bioenhancement for future space missions, like radical forms of biomedical human enhancements in general, seems at first glance a reasonable idea. This is due to the harsh conditions of the space environment, as well as the high cost and difficulty of implementing long-term and long-distance space missions. However, it turns out that this most controversial type of human enhancement, which is biomodification of morality, can also bring many risks for such a demanding environment as that of future long-distance space missions. The object of this paper is to polemicize the philosophy of moral bioenhancement proposed by Henri Huttunen and Oskari Sivula and to supplement their point of view with important but missing contexts.

Human Technological Enhancement and Theological Anthropology

Human Technological Enhancement and Theological Anthropology

Should Moral Bioenhancement Be Covert? A Response to Crutchfield

Crutchfield (Crutchfield in Bioethics 33:112–121, [4]) has argued that if moral bioenhancement (MBE) ought to be compulsory, then it ought to be covert. More precisely, they argue that MBE is a public health intervention, and for this reason should be governed by public health ethics. Taking from various public health frameworks, Crutchfield provides an array of values to consider, such as: utility, liberty, equality, transparency, social trust, and autonomy. Subsequently, they argue that a covert MBE programme does better than an overt one, in preserving or promoting said values, and hence, that a covert MBE is preferable. In this paper, I will provide novel reasons to doubt that the relevant values are in fact better promoted or preserved by a covert MBE programme. Additionally, I will provide a novel autonomy-based consideration which counts in favour of the MBE programme being overt, rather than covert. Given that as things currently stand it is unclear which kind of MBE programme is preferable, the upshot of my criticism of Crutchfield will be to provide some recommendations as to how we might proceed in establishing whether a covert or overt MBE programme fares better.