Biomedical Moral Enhancement in the Face of Moral Particularism

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 189-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Hua Huang ◽  
Peter Shiu-Hwa Tsu
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Great Caution ◽  
Terrorist Financing ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
The Face ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Real Challenge ◽  
Biomedical Moral Enhancement

AbstractBiomedical moral enhancement, or BME for short, aims to improve people's moral behaviour through augmenting, via biomedical means, their virtuous dispositions such as sympathy, honesty, courage, or generosity. Recently, however, it has been challenged, on particularist grounds, that the manifestations of virtuous dispositions can be morally wrong. For instance, being generous in terrorist financing is one such case. If so, biomedical moral enhancement, by enhancing people's virtues, might turn out to be counterproductive in terms of people's moral behaviour. In this chapter, we argue, via a comparison with moral education, that the case for the practice of biomedical moral enhancement is not weakened by the particularists’ stress on the variable moral statuses of the manifestations of our virtues. The real challenge from the particularists, we argue, lies elsewhere. It is that practical wisdom, being essentially context-sensitive, cannot be enhanced via biomedical means. On the basis of this, we further argue that BME ought to be used with great caution, for it may wrongly enhance, for instance, a terrorist financier's generosity, a robber's courage, or an undercover detective's honesty. Finally, we sketch how boundaries can be set on the use of BME, and address some potential objections to our position.

Intelligence, empathy, and memory: Exploring moral enhancement through gene editing, training, and computer–brain interfaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Braden Molhoek
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Prosocial Behaviour ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

In this research article, I seek to expand the conversation regarding moral enhancement by identifying traits or capacities that if enhanced would lead to an increase in moral behaviour. I decided to focus on the three capacities: intelligence, empathy and memory. These abilities do not necessarily lead to moral behaviour on their own; however, building on a study on the relationship of intelligence and morality, I argued that enhancing intelligence and empathy simultaneously allows for moral behaviour as an emergent property. Intelligence alone is not sufficient because even though greater intelligence leads to more prosocial behaviour, prosocial behaviour is not inherently moral. Empathy alone can lead to partiality, especially favouring those who are a part of one’s in-group. The virtue of prudence, practical wisdom, relies on more than intellect or reason; it requires lived experience in order to effectively deliberate. Memory provides intelligence with that information. There are a variety of ways in which human enhancement can be pursued. I chose to focus on three methods in this study: gene editing, training and computer–brain interfaces. Turning to the existing scientific literature, I attempted to find examples or potential ways in which intelligence, empathy and memory could be enhanced through these methods. Genetic examples are difficult given the complexity of multi-gene traits, and that heritability is only a small percentage of overall variance. Training these capacities has had limited success, and there is no consensus in the literature on how effective is the training. Computer–brain interfaces appear to offer potential, but some experiments have only just begun on human subjects, whilst other approaches are still being tested on other animals.Contribution: This article ends with an appeal to prioritise moral enhancements over other forms. Doing so allows for a great impact on society and a safer overall approach to enhancements.

Neurointerventions, Morality, and Children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Clayton ◽  
Andres Moles
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Conduct ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Moral Constraint ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Moral Limits

Is the political community morally permitted to use neurointerventions to improve the moral conduct of children? Putting aside difficult questions concerning the institutionalization of moral enhancement, the authors address this question, first, by arguing that is not, in itself, always morally impermissible for the community to impose neurointerventions on adults. Although certain ideals, such as the ideal of individual autonomy, limit the permissible employment of neurointerventions, they do not generate a moral constraint that always forbids their use. Thereafter, they argue that because young children lack certain moral capacities that adults possess, the moral limits that pertain to the use of neurointerventions to improve their moral behaviour are, in principle, less restrictive than they are for adults.

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 Cultism and Violence in Nigerian Universities: A Paradigm for Achieving Religious Academic Excellence

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Ushe Mike Ushe
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
Persistent Violence ◽  
The Government ◽  
Forms Of Violence

Nigerian universities and other institutions of higher learning have in recent times witnessed unprecedented insecurity, persistent violence and educational backdrop, leading to loss of many lives and properties worth millions of naira across the country. Part of the face out of this scourge is the prevailing case of cultism and other forms of violence in Nigerian universities and other higher educational institutions. This has resulted to gruesome arrest, expulsion and murder of many students on account of cult activities on the campuses and other forms of students’ violence which further exposed our universities to insecurity, ritual murders, drug abuse and use of dangerous weapons by cult groups, victimization and regime of terror against fellow students, lecturers, and anyone that stands in the ways of these cult groups on our campuses. This paper discusses the impacts of cultism and other forms of violence on university campuses in Nigeria as a search for achieving sustainable peace and academic excellence. To explore this change, the study employs survey design, questionnaires and face-to-face interviews in collecting data and analysis. The research findings have shown that cultism and other forms of violence are prevalence in Nigerian universities and have increased tremendously in recent decades, reoccurring almost on daily basis. The paper observed that students’ radical activism and union politics, incapability of university and state authorities to enforce minimum standard of students’ civil behaviors on campuses as well as rivalries between cult groups and the wider campus community has drastically affected educational or academic performance of students in contemporary Nigerian society. The paper recommends the restructuring of university educational policies and curriculum, provision of moral education and non-interference of the government and university authorities in the affairs of students’ union politics and activism.

scholarly journals QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF COACHES’ PERSPECTIVES ON MORAL EDUCATION IN SPORT

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (107) ◽  
pp. 46-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saulius Šukys ◽  
Živilė Dargenė ◽  
Diana Karanauskienė
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Career Planning ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Football Coaches ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Moral Competences

Background. Moral behaviour and moral education of young athletes still remain an important issue in sports context. This study was designed to examine coaches’ perspectives on moral education in sport. Methods. In this study, aiming at establishing the perspectives of coaches on the moral education of athletes in sports activities, qualitative research was selected. Primary data were collected via semi-structured interviews with nine basketball and football coaches of different experience and age. The data were analysed applying thematic analysis. Results. Thematic analysis indicated that coaches identified goals of athletes’ education as the development of athletes’ personality, motivation, the development of sports excellence and the encouragement to achieve victory. Coaches defined moral education as the development of the authority of an athlete, fair play, compliance with rules, and integrity. The most common means coaches used for moral education were explanation, discussion, lectures, meetings, personal examples, case analyses. Such means are important for athlete’s personal development, pursuit of results, and career planning. The qualities of good coach were professional knowledge, authority, competences of creating motivational climate, and also moral competences. Conclusion. A central finding of the study is that coaches define moral education in sport through the education of moral values and the goals set by coaches related not only to the sports results, but also to the development of the personality of athletes. Personal role of coaches in moral education encompassing professional knowledge and moral competences of athletes is of great importance.

scholarly journals The ethics of narrative art: Philosophy in schools, compassion and learning from stories

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura D'Olimpio ◽  
Andrew Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
Alasdair Macintyre ◽  
Philosophy For Children ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Narrative Art ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Philosophical Dialogue ◽  
Art Philosophy ◽  
Student Questions

Following neo-Aristotelians Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum, we claim that humans are story-telling animals who learn from the stories of diverse others. Moral agents use rational emotions, such as compassion, which is our focus here, to imaginatively reconstruct others’ thoughts, feelings and goals. In turn, this imaginative reconstruction plays a crucial role in deliberating and discerning how to act. A body of literature has developed in support of the role narrative artworks (i.e. novels and films) can play in allowing us the opportunity to engage imaginatively and sympathetically with diverse characters and scenarios in a safe protected space that is created by the fictional world. By practising what Nussbaum calls a ‘loving attitude’, her version of ethical attention, we can form virtuous habits that lead to phronesis (practical wisdom). In this paper, and taking compassion as an illustrative focus, we examine the ways that students’ moral education might usefully develop from engaging with narrative artworks through Philosophy for Children (P4C), where philosophy is a praxis, conducted in a classroom setting using a Community of Inquiry (CoI). We argue that narrative artworks provide useful stimulus material to engage students, generate student questions, and motivate philosophical dialogue and the formation of good habits, which, in turn, supports the argument for philosophy to be taught in schools.

scholarly journals The evolution of moral progress and biomedical moral enhancement

Bioethics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 814-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingmar Persson ◽  
Julian Savulescu
Keyword(s):  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Moral Progress ◽  
Biomedical Moral Enhancement

scholarly journals Education and Religion in Secular Age from an African Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Isaak
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
German Colonialism ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Face ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Right ◽  
Secular State

In this article the author shall argue that before Namibian independence in 1990, Christianity was used by some as a weapon of breaking down, or as a tool of, colonialism, racism, and apartheid. In the name of a religious god unashamed acts of violence and wars were committed and resulted in genocide of 1904 to 1908. However, such brutalities did not conquer the African spirit of what is identified in this article as the Ubuntu (humaneness). Inspired by their sense of Ubuntu the Africans, in the face of German colonialism and the South African imposed Apartheid system, finally emerged victorious and accepted the model of religious pluralism, diversity, and the principle of African Ubuntu. We shall, furthermore, argue that the Namibian educational system and the Namibian Constitution, Articles 1 and 21, the Republic of Namibia is established as a secular state wherein all persons shall have the right to freedom to practise any religion and to manifest such practice. It means religious diversity and pluralism is a value, a cultural or religious or political ideology, which positively welcomes the encounter of religions. It is often characterized as an attitude of openness in a secular state towards different religions and interreligious dialogue and interfaith programs. As an example we shall focus on the subject of Religious and Moral Education where such religious diversity and pluralism are directly linked to political, social, and economic issues, as well as moral values.

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