Moral Enhancement Meets Normative and Empirical Reality: Assessing the Practical Feasibility of Moral Enhancement Neurotechnologies

Bioethics
Veljko Dubljević, Eric Racine

Abstract

Moral enhancement refers to the possibility of making individuals and societies better from a moral standpoint. A fierce debate has emerged about the ethical aspects of moral enhancement, notably because steering moral enhancement in a particular direction involves choosing amongst a wide array of competing options, and these options entail deciding which moral theory or attributes of the moral agent would benefit from enhancement. Furthermore, the ability and effectiveness of different neurotechnologies to enhance morality have not been carefully examined. In this paper, we assess the practical feasibility of moral enhancement neurotechnologies. We reviewed the literature on neuroscience and cognitive science models of moral judgment and analyzed their implications for the specific target of intervention (cognition, volition or affect) in moral enhancement. We also reviewed and compared evidence on available neurotechnologies that could serve as tools of moral enhancement. We conclude that the predictions of rationalist, emotivist, and dual process models are at odds with evidence, while different intuitionist models of moral judgment are more likely to be aligned with it. Furthermore, the project of moral enhancement is not f...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 11, 2018·Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees·Michele FariscoKathinka Evers
Aug 30, 2019·Journal of Medical Ethics·Gregory Mark Conan
Jul 8, 2020·Science and Engineering Ethics·Veljko Dubljević
Apr 3, 2021·AJOB Neuroscience·Veljko DubljevićRobert Ranisch

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