Procedural Moral Enhancement

Schaefer, G. Owen; Savulescu, Julian

doi:10.1007/s12152-016-9258-7

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The idea is sometimes couched as 'procedural' moral enhancement (Schaefer and Savulescu 2016b, a). Obviously, there are, among others, psychological causes for the worrying trend.…”

Section: Epistemic Enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How (not) to Argue For Moral Enhancement: Reflections on a Decade of Debate

Paulo

Bublitz

2017

Topoi

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Keywords Moral enhancement · Bioenhancement · Climate change · Methodological individualism · Moral education · Anti-behaviorist fallacy "Advances in the cognitive sciences have made neurotechnology imperative… The cognitive sciences are now the critical sciences; they will determine the answer to the ultimate moral question of human survival. Given the urgency of this immediate survival problem, the cognitive and social sciences must enable us to control [our] animalistic, barbaric, and primitive propensities … and subordinate these negatives to the uniquely human moral and ethical characteristics of love, kindness, and empathy. … We can no longer afford to rely solely on the traditional, prescientific attempts to contain human cruelty and destructiveness. The techniques and appeals of religion, moral philosophy, law, and education … are, in themselves, no longer appropriate [in] the present survival urgency. …The work on the effects of direct stimulation of certain areas of the brain, … the effects of certain drugs on exciting, tranquilizing, or depressing the emotional and motivational levels of the individual; … suggest that we might be on the threshold of that type of scientific biochemical intervention which could stabilize and make dominant [our] moral and ethical propensities … and subordinate, if not eliminate, … negative and primitive behavioral tendencies. ….It is possible to object to the era of neurotechnology on 'moral' grounds and to assert that these suggestions are repugnant because they are manipulative and will take away [the] natural right to make errors-even those errors which perpetrate cruelties and destruction upon other human beings. In the light of the realities of and possible consequences of nuclear weaponry, these allegedly moral arguments seem mockingly, pathetically immoral. It Abstract The controversy over moral bioenhancement has fallen into a stalemate between advocates and critics. We wish to overcome this stalemate by addressing some of the key challenges any moral enhancement project has to meet. In particular, we shall argue that current proposals are unpersuasive as they, first, fail to diagnose the often complex causes of contemporary moral maladies and, second, are premised on methodological individualism. Focusing on brains and minds neglects social and environmental factors. Solving the mega-problems of today very likely requires more than transforming individual brains, it requires structural and higher-level changes. By itself, moral bioenhancement is thus insufficient for solving these problems. Moreover, we outline some of the yet unresolved problems of (democratic) legitimacy a mandatory state-run bioenhancement project faces and show why they cannot be defused through analogies with moral education. Finally, normatively less worrisome means of enhancing morality, such as psychotherapies affording self-exploration, are already available. Moral bioenhancement may thus not even be necessary for solving today's mega problems. The overemphasis on speculative future te...

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“…The idea is sometimes couched as 'procedural' moral enhancement (Schaefer and Savulescu 2016b, a). Obviously, there are, among others, psychological causes for the worrying trend.…”

Section: Epistemic Enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How (not) to Argue For Moral Enhancement: Reflections on a Decade of Debate

Paulo

Bublitz

2017

Topoi

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“…Proposals that fall into the latter category include those that aim to develop particular dispositions (Jebari 2014), reliability (Schaefer and Savulescu 2019), self-interest and cognitive capacity (Ahlskog 2017), or cognitive-affective mechanisms that underlie moral dispositions (Klincewicz, Frank, and Sokólska 2018). These approaches all share the assumption that beliefs or attitudes are not the appropriate targets for moral improvement, but the underlying capacities for having such beliefs are appropriate.…”

Section: Moral Improvement With Robotic Nudgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic Nudges for Moral Improvement through Stoic Practice

Klincewicz

2019

Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology

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This article offers a theoretical framework that can be used to derive viable engineering strategies for the design and development of robots that can nudge people towards moral improvement. The framework relies on research in developmental psychology and insights from Stoic ethics. Stoicism recommends contemplative practices that over time help one develop dispositions to behave in ways that improve the functioning of mechanisms that are constitutive of moral cognition. Robots can nudge individuals towards these practices and can therefore help develop the dispositions to, for example, extend concern to others, avoid parochialism, etc.

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“…We have used this definition to straightforwardly defend the moral importance of bias avoidance (Schaefer and Savulescu 2016). Briefly, ‘irrelevant’ factors introduce noise into the moral reasoning process.…”

Section: Part Iii: Self-management Capacitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This approach stems from an earlier article, Procedural Moral Reliability (Schaefer and Savulescu 2016). In that article, we derived six features of moral decision-making, inspired by the early work of John Rawls.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Better Minds, Better Morals: A Procedural Guide to Better Judgment

Schaefer

Savulescu

2017

Journal of Posthuman Studies

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Making more moral decisions - an uncontroversial goal, if ever there was one. But how to go about it? In this article, we offer a practical guide on ways to promote good judgment in our personal and professional lives. We will do this not by outlining what the good life consists in or which values we should accept.Rather, we offer a theory of : a set of dimensions of thought that are generally conducive to good moral reasoning. At the end of the day, we all have to decide for ourselves what is good and bad, right and wrong. The best way to ensure we make the right choices is to ensure the procedures we're employing are sound and reliable. We identify four broad categories of judgment to be targeted - cognitive, self-management, motivational and interpersonal. Specific factors within each category are further delineated, with a total of 14 factors to be discussed. For each, we will go through the reasons it generally leads to more morally reliable decision-making, how various thinkers have historically addressed the topic, and the insights of recent research that can offer new ways to promote good reasoning. The result is a wide-ranging survey that contains practical advice on how to make better choices. Finally, we relate this to the project of transhumanism and prudential decision-making. We argue that transhumans will employ better moral procedures like these. We also argue that the same virtues will enable us to take better control of our own lives, enhancing our responsibility and enabling us to lead better lives from the prudential perspective.

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Procedural Moral Enhancement

Cited by 16 publications

References 25 publications

How (not) to Argue For Moral Enhancement: Reflections on a Decade of Debate

How (not) to Argue For Moral Enhancement: Reflections on a Decade of Debate

Robotic Nudges for Moral Improvement through Stoic Practice

Better Minds, Better Morals: A Procedural Guide to Better Judgment

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