The Ethics of Neuroenhancement

2019 ◽  
pp. 106-127
Author(s):  
Nils-Frederic Wagner ◽  
Jeffrey Robinson ◽  
Christine Wiebking

According to several recent studies, a big chunk of college students in North America and Europe uses so called ‘smart drugs' to enhance their cognitive capacities aiming at improving their academic performance. With these practices, there comes a certain moral unease. This unease is shared by many, yet it is difficult to pinpoint and in need of justification. Other than simply pointing to the medical risks coming along with using non-prescribed medication, the salient moral question is whether these practices are troubling in and of themselves. In due consideration of empirical insights into the concrete effects of smart drugs on brain and behavior, our attempt is to articulate wherein this moral unease consists and to argue for why the authors believe cognitive enhancement to be morally objectionable. The authors will contend that the moral problem with these practices lies less in the end it seeks, than in the underlying human disposition it expresses and promotes. Some might ask, what is wrong with molding our cognitive capacities to achieve excellence, get a competitive edge, or, as the whim takes us? In all of these occasions, the usage of smart drugs serves a certain goal, a telos. The goal is, broadly speaking, this: outsmarting opponents in an arms race for limited resources and thereby yielding a competitive edge. In plain words: competition is valued higher than cooperation or solidarity. What is wrong with striving for this goal? The authors submit that the question whether people really want to live in a society that promotes the mentality ‘individual competition over societal cooperation' deserves serious consideration. In developing their answer, the authors draw on an ‘Ethics of Constraint' framework, arguing that widespread off-label use of smart drugs bears the risk of negative neural/behavioral consequences for the individual that might, in the long run, be accompanied by changing social value orientations for the worse.

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils-Frederic Wagner ◽  
Jeffrey Robinson ◽  
Christine Wiebking

According to several recent studies, a big chunk of college students in North America and Europe uses so called ‘smart drugs' to enhance their cognitive capacities aiming at improving their academic performance. With these practices, there comes a certain moral unease. This unease is shared by many, yet it is difficult to pinpoint and in need of justification. Other than simply pointing to the medical risks coming along with using non-prescribed medication, the salient moral question is whether these practices are troubling in and of themselves. In due consideration of empirical insights into the concrete effects of smart drugs on brain and behavior, our attempt is to articulate wherein this moral unease consists and to argue for why the authors believe cognitive enhancement to be morally objectionable. The authors will contend that the moral problem with these practices lies less in the end it seeks, than in the underlying human disposition it expresses and promotes. Some might ask, what is wrong with molding our cognitive capacities to achieve excellence, get a competitive edge, or, as the whim takes us? In all of these occasions, the usage of smart drugs serves a certain goal, a telos. The goal is, broadly speaking, this: outsmarting opponents in an arms race for limited resources and thereby yielding a competitive edge. In plain words: competition is valued higher than cooperation or solidarity. What is wrong with striving for this goal? The authors submit that the question whether people really want to live in a society that promotes the mentality ‘individual competition over societal cooperation' deserves serious consideration. In developing their answer, the authors draw on an ‘Ethics of Constraint' framework, arguing that widespread off-label use of smart drugs bears the risk of negative neural/behavioral consequences for the individual that might, in the long run, be accompanied by changing social value orientations for the worse.


1974 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Urban Pappi ◽  
Edward O. Laumann

AbstractSocial value orientations are introduced as a central set of variables for theories of voting behavior. Voting behavior is used as an example for a class of models which can demonstrate the linkage between social structure and individual behavior. Social value orientations are analytically defined and examined in relationship with related and complementary concepts like interests. Theoretically based on the AGIL paradigm, a comprehensive sample of indicators of social values is drawn from appropriate attitude scales. The structure of value orientations is empirically delineated by a multidimensional scaling procedure using the correlations between the indicators as input. Knowing this structure it is possible to construct a parsimonious set of eight scales of value orientations. Canonical correlations and discriminant analysis are the procedures used to relate this set with social structural antecedents and political attitudes and behavior as presumed consequences. The empirical analysis is based on data from the Jülich community study.


2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1412-1425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric I. Knudsen

Experience exerts a profound influence on the brain and, therefore, on behavior. When the effect of experience on the brain is particularly strong during a limited period in development, this period is referred to as a sensitive period. Such periods allow experience to instruct neural circuits to process or represent information in a way that is adaptive for the individual. When experience provides information that is essential for normal development and alters performance permanently, such sensitive periods are referred to as critical periods. Although sensitive periods are reflected in behavior, they are actually a property of neural circuits. Mechanisms of plasticity at the circuit level are discussed that have been shown to operate during sensitive periods. A hypothesis is proposed that experience during a sensitive period modifies the architecture of a circuit in fundamental ways, causing certain patterns of connectivity to become highly stable and, therefore, energetically preferred. Plasticity that occurs beyond the end of a sensitive period, which is substantial in many circuits, alters connectivity patterns within the architectural constraints established during the sensitive period. Preferences in a circuit that result from experience during sensitive periods are illustrated graphically as changes in a “stability landscape,” a metaphor that represents the relative contributions of genetic and experiential influences in shaping the information processing capabilities of a neural circuit. By understanding sensitive periods at the circuit level, as well as understanding the relationship between circuit properties and behavior, we gain a deeper insight into the critical role that experience plays in shaping the development of the brain and behavior.


2021 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 00074
Author(s):  
Y.N. Petrov ◽  
O.N. Filatova ◽  
M.V. Grinina

The article under consideration presents the diagnosis of social and pedagogical trends in the development of students in a professional educational organization. A comparative analysis of the diagnostic experiment is given. The experiment carried out within the framework of the study showed a significant shift in the spiritual, moral and patriotic value orientations of students to a pragmatic orientation. In the pedagogical diagnostics, which was carried out within the framework of the study, the object was the spiritual, moral and patriotic orientations of students, which manifested themselves in various facts of their attitudes and behavior. This made it possible to track the development of students' civic engagement, since the diagnostic procedure is used to detect changes in the cause and disclose their manifestation in pedagogical practice. An experimental analysis of the problem under consideration has shown that modern conditions require the energetic entry of the individual into the spiritual space and the development of spiritual, moral and patriotic orientations, which are associated with the direction of the development of civic activity of the individual, the harmonization of humanity and pragmatism, becomes essential.


1959 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-10
Author(s):  
LEONARD CARMICHAEL

1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 999-999
Author(s):  
Gerald S. Wasserman

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