Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:22:19.982Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Drugs and Hugs: Stimulating Moral Dispositions as a Method of Moral Enhancement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2018

Michał Klincewicz ,
Lily Eva Frank  and
Marta Sokólska
Michał Klincewicz*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Jagiellonian University
Lily Eva Frank*
Affiliation:
Ethics and Philosophy, Technical University, Eindhoven
Marta Sokólska*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Jagiellonian University
*
michal.klincewicz@uj.edu.pl
l.e.frank@tue.nl
sokolska.marta@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Advocates of moral enhancement through pharmacological, genetic, or other direct interventions sometimes explicitly argue, or assume without argument, that traditional moral education and development is insufficient to bring about moral enhancement. Traditional moral education grounded in a Kohlbergian theory of moral development is indeed unsuitable for that task; however, the psychology of moral development and education has come a long way since then. Recent studies support the view that moral cognition is a higher-order process, unified at a functional level, and that a specific moral faculty does not exist. It is more likely that moral cognition involves a number of different mechanisms, each connected to other cognitive and affective processes. Taking this evidence into account, we propose a novel, empirically informed approach to moral development and education, in children and adults, which is based on a cognitive-affective approach to moral dispositions. This is an interpretative approach that derives from the cognitive-affective personality system (Mischel and Shoda, 1995). This conception individuates moral dispositions by reference to the cognitive and affective processes that realise them. Conceived of in this way, moral dispositions influence an agent's behaviour when they interact with situational factors, such as mood or social context. Understanding moral dispositions in this way lays the groundwork for proposing a range of indirect methods of moral enhancement, techniques that promise similar results as direct interventions whilst posing fewer risks.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 83: Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives , October 2018 , pp. 329 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Work on this essay was financed by the Polish National Science Centre (NCN) SONATA 9 Grant, PSP: K/PBD/000139, under decision UMO-2015/17/D/HS1/01705.

2

All three authors worked equally on this chapter. Parts of it are based on on Marta Sokólska's Master's thesis in cognitive science defended in 2016 at Jagiellonian University: ‘Udoskonalenie moralne w świetle nauk kognitywnych’ (‘Moral Enhancement in the Light of Cognitive Science’).

References

3 Persson, I. and Savulescu, J., ‘Unfit for the Future? Human Nature, Scientific Progress, and the Need for Moral Enhancement’, in Savulescu, J., ter Meulen, R., and Kahane, G. (eds), Enhancing Human Capacities (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 486–500Google Scholar.

4 See for example: Flanagan, O., The Geography of Morals: Varieties of Moral Possibility (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fröding, B., Virtue Ethics and Human Enhancement (Cham: Springer Science & Business Media, 2012)Google Scholar; Fröding, B. and Osika, W., Neuroenhancement: How Mental Training and Meditation Can Promote Epistemic Virtue (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Powell, R. and Buchanan, A., ‘The Evolution of Moral Enhancement’, in Coady, T., Sanyal, S., and Giubilini, A. (eds), The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)Google Scholar.

5 We use the term “moral cognition” as a shorthand for all the psychological mechanisms that underlie moral behaviour. These include the capacity to have beliefs, emotions, and other mental states or processes, which may but need not be connected to morality. It is important to note that we use these terms without making any commitment to a particular view of moral psychology as inherently cognitive as opposed to affective.

6 Young, L. and Dungan, J., ‘Where in the Brain is Morality? Everywhere and Maybe Nowhere’, Social Neuroscience 7:1 (2012), 1–10CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

7 Hauser, M., Cushman, F., Young, L., Jin, R. Kang-Xing, and Mikhail, J., ‘A Dissociation Between Moral Judgments and Justifications’, Mind & Language 22:1 (2007), 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Mikhail, J., ‘Universal Moral Grammar: Theory, Evidence and the Future’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11:4 (2007), 143–152CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Rawls, J., A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1971), 46–47Google Scholar.

10 For a review see: Greene, J. D., ‘The Cognitive Neuroscience of Moral Judgment and Decision Making’, in Gazzaniga, M. S. (ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences, 5th edn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014), 1013–1023Google Scholar. See also Greene, J. D., ‘The Rise of Moral Cognition’, Cognition 135, 39–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Moll, J., Zahn, R., de Oliveira-Souza, R., Krueger, F., and Grafman, J., ‘The Neural Basis of Human Moral Cognition’, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6:10 (2005), 799–809CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

12 Moll, J., Oliveira-Souza, D., and Zahn, R., ‘The Neural Basis of Moral Cognition’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1124:1 (2008), 161–180CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

13 Casebeer, W. D. and Churchland, P. S., ‘The Neural Mechanisms of Moral Cognition: A Multiple-Aspect Approach to Moral Judgment and Decision-Making’, Biology and Philosophy 18:1 (2003), 169–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Prinz, J., ‘Is Morality Innate?’, in Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (ed.), Moral Psychology, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), 367–406Google Scholar.

15 Van Bavel, J. J., Hall, O. Feldman, and Mende-Siedlecki, P., ‘The Neuroscience of Moral Cognition: From Dual Processes to Dynamic Systems’, Current Opinion in Psychology 6 (2015), 167–172Google Scholar.

16 Sharma, E., Mazar, N., Alter, A. L., and Ariely, D., ‘Financial Deprivation Selectively Shifts Moral Standards and Compromises Moral Decisions’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 123:2 (2014), 90–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Gunia, B. C., Wang, L., Huang, L. I., Wang, J., and Murnighan, J. K., ‘Contemplation and Conversation: Subtle Influences on Moral Decision Making’, Academy of Management Journal 55:1 (2012), 13–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Prehn, K., Wartenburger, I., Mériau, K., Scheibe, C., Goodenough, O. R., Villringer, A., and Heekeren, H. R., ‘Individual Differences in Moral Judgment Competence Influence Neural Correlates of Socio-Normative Judgments’, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 3:1 (2008), 33–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Edelstein, W., Keller, M., and Schröder, E., ‘Child Development and Social Structure: A Longitudinal Study of Individual Differences’, in Baltes, Paul B., Featherman, David L., Lerner, Richard M. (eds), Life-Span Development and Behavior, Vol. 10 (London: Psychology Press, 2016), 151–185Google Scholar.

20 Svensson, R., Pauwels, L. J., Weerman, F. M., and Bruinsma, G. J., ‘Explaining Individual Changes in Moral Values and Moral Emotions Among Adolescent Boys and Girls: A Fixed-Effects Analysis’, European Journal of Criminology 14:3 (2017), 290–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Decety, J. and Howard, L. H., ‘The Role of Affect in the Neurodevelopment of Morality’, Child Development Perspectives 7:1 (2013), 49–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 49.

22 Wiseman, H., The Myth of the Moral Brain: The Limits of Moral Enhancement (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Harman, G., ‘Skepticism About Character Traits’, The Journal of Ethics 13:2/3 (2009), 235–242CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Doris, J. M., Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behaviour (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Anderson, C. A., Deuser, W. E., and DeNeve, K. M., ‘Hot Temperatures, Hostile Affect, Hostile Cognition, and Arousal: Tests of a General Model of Affective Aggression’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21:5 (1995), 434–448CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Alfano, M., Character as Moral Fiction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Alfano, Character as Moral Fiction, 44–46.

28 Arjoon, S., ‘Ethical Decision-Making: A Case for the Triple Font Theory’, Journal of Business Ethics 71:4 (2007), 395–410CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wielenberg, E. J., ‘Saving Character’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9:4 (2006), 461–491CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kupperman, J. J., ‘The Indispensability of Character’, Philosophy 76:2 (2001), 239–250CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kamtekar, R., ‘Situationism and Virtue Ethics on the Content of Our Character’, Ethics 114:3 (2004), 458–491CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Radcliffe, E. S., ‘Moral Naturalism and the Possibility of Making Ourselves Better’, in Wilburn, B. K. (ed.), Moral Cultivation: Essays on the Development of Character and Virtue (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), 101–24Google Scholar; Sabini, J. and Silver, M., ‘Lack of Character? Situationism Critiqued’, Ethics 115:3 (2005), 535–562CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sreenivasan, G., ‘The Situationist Critique of Virtue Ethics’, in Russell, D. C. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 290–314CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Snow, N. E., Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Russell, Daniel C., Practical Intelligence and the Virtues (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Szutta, N. and Szutta, A. (eds), W poszukiwaniu moralnego charakteru, Vol.1 (Lublin: Wydawnictwo Academicon, 2015)Google Scholar.

32 Mischel, W. and Shoda, Y., ‘A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality: Reconceptualizing Situations, Dispositions, Dynamics, and Invariance in Personality Structure’, Psychological Review 102:2 (1995), 246–268CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Kolligian, John Jr and Sternberg, Robert J., ‘Perceived Fraudulence in Young Adults: Is There an “Imposter Syndrome”?’, Journal of Personality Assessment 56:2 (1991), 308–326CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Snow, Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory, 38.

35 Mischel and Shoda, ‘A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality’, 249.

36 Monteith, M. J., Sherman, J. W., and Devine, P. G., ‘Suppression as a Stereotype Control Strategy’, Personality and Social Psychology Review 2:1 (1998), 63–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Devine, P. G. and Monteith, M. J., ‘Automaticity and Control in Stereotyping’, in Chaiken, Shelly and Trope, Yaacov (eds), Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology (New York: Guildford Press, 1999), 339–360Google Scholar.

38 Decety, J. and Howard, L. H., ‘The Role of Affect in the Neurodevelopment of Morality’, Child Development Perspectives 7:1 (2013), 49–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Bandstra, N. F., Chambers, C. T., McGrath, P. J. and Moore, C., ‘The Behavioural Expression of Empathy to Others’ Pain Versus Others’ Sadness in Young Children’, Pain 152:5 (2011), 1074–1082CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

40 Shaw, P., Lawrence, E. J., Radbourne, C., Bramham, J., Polkey, C. E., and David, A. S., ‘The Impact of Early and Late Damage to the Human Amygdala on “Theory of Mind” Reasoning’, Brain 127:7 (2004), 1535–1548CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Anderson, S. W., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., and Damasio, A. R., ‘Impairment of Social and Moral Behaviour Related to Early Damage in Human Prefrontal Cortex’, Nature Neuroscience 2:11 (1999), 1032–1037CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Christen, M. and Narvaez, D., ‘Moral Development in Early Childhood is Key for Moral Enhancement’, AJOB Neuroscience 3:4 (2012), 25–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Cowell, J. M. and Decety, J., ‘Precursors to Morality in Development as a Complex Interplay Between Neural, Socioenvironmental, and Behavioural Facets’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112: 41 (2015), 12657–12662CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

44 Brody, G. H. and Shaffer, D. R., ‘Contributions of Parents and Peers to Children's Moral Socialisation’, Developmental Review 2:1 (1982), 31–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Schore, A., ‘Bowlby's “Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness”: Recent Studies on the Interpersonal Neurobiology of Attachment and Emotional Development’, in Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., and Gleason, T. (eds), Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) 31–67Google Scholar.

46 Christen and Narvaez, ‘Moral Development in Early Childhood’, 25.

47 For example: Narvaez, D. and Bock, T., ‘Developing Ethical Expertise and Moral Personalities’, Handbook of Moral and Character Education (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), 140–158Google Scholar.

48 Decety, J. and Cowell, J. M., ‘The Complex Relation Between Morality and Empathy’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 18:7 (2014), 337–339CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Carr, D., ‘On the Contribution of Literature and the Arts to the Educational Cultivation of Moral Virtue, Feeling and Emotion’, Journal of Moral Education 34:2 (2005), 137–151CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Johnson, D. R., Cushman, G. K., Borden, L. A., and McCune, M. S., ‘Potentiating Empathic Growth: Generating Imagery While Reading Fiction Increases Empathy and Prosocial Behaviour’, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 7:3 (2013), 306–312CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Kidd, D. C. and Castano, E., ‘Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind’, Science 342:6156 (2013), 377–380CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 Billington, J., ‘“Reading for Life”: Prison Reading Groups in Practice and Theory’, Critical Survey 23:3 (2011), 67–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Billington, J., Longden, E., and Robinson, J., ‘A Literature-Based Intervention for Women Prisoners: Preliminary Findings’, International Journal of Prisoner Health 12:4 (2016), 230–243CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Shapiro, J. F., ‘Using Literature and the Arts to Develop Empathy in Medical Students’, in Farrow, F. D. T. and Woodruff, P. (eds), Empathy in Mental Illness (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 473–494CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Reilly, J. M., Trial, J., Piver, D. E., and Schaff, P. B., ‘Using Theater to Increase Empathy Training in Medical Students’, Journal for Learning Through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities 8:1 (2012)Google Scholar: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68x7949t.

53 Eisenberg, A., Rosenthal, S., and Schlussel, Y. R., ‘Medicine as a Performing Art: What We Can Learn About Empathic Communication from Theater Arts’, Academic Medicine 90:3 (2015), 272–276CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Boal, Augusto, ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’, trans. by McBride, Charles A. and McBride, Maria-Odilia Leal (New York: Theatre Communication Group, 1985), 144–45Google Scholar.

55 The Forum Project: http://theforumproject.org/whatistoforumtheatre/.

56 Rodríguez, J. I., et al. ‘Assessing the Impact of Augusto Boal's “Proactive Performance”: An Embodied Approach for Cultivating Prosocial Responses to Sexual Assault’, Text and Performance Quarterly 26:3 (2006), 229–252CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 245.

57 Zahn-Waxler, C. and Radke-Yarrow, M., ‘The Origins of Empathic Concern’, Motivation and Emotion 14:2 (1990), 107–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 Daly, B. and Suggs, S., ‘Teachers' Experiences with Humane Education and Animals in the Elementary Classroom: Implications for Empathy Development’, Journal of Moral Education 39:1 (2010), 101–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Kohl, R. and Wenner, A., State Comparison of Life Sentenced Inmates (Milford, MA: Massachusetts Department of Correction, Office of Strategic Planning and Research, 2012)Google Scholar.

60 Daly and Suggs, ‘Teachers' Experiences with Humane Education’, 105–106.

61 C. Deaton, ‘Humanizing Prisons with Animals: A Closer Look at “Cell Dogs” and Horse Programs in Correctional Institutions’, Journal of Correctional Education, 46–62.

62 Colorado Correctional Industries, ‘Wild Horse Inmate Program’: https://www.coloradoci.com/serviceproviders/whip/.

63 Arizona Correctional Industries, ‘Wild Horse Program’: https://aci.az.gov/wild-horse-program/.

64 Franklin, R. G. Jr, Nelson, A. J., Baker, M., Beeney, J. E., Vescio, T. K., Lenz-Watson, A., and Adams, Jr R. B., ‘Neural Responses to Perceiving Suffering in Humans and Animals’, Social Neuroscience 8:3 (2013), 217–227CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

65 Thompson, Gullone, Daly, and Suggs refer to the project of humane education which focusses on issues such as social justice and citizenship and which is meant to encourage people to respect and be compassionate toward all beings, human and nonhuman, and to take into consideration the environment and its welfare. However, the benefits of using pets, presented by the mentioned authors, make it an interesting method also for moral education, which are not directly connected to humane education in its original presentation. See notes 68 and 69 for full citations.

66 Robin, M. and Bensel, R. T., ‘Pets and the Socialization of Children’, Marriage & Family Review 8:3/4 (1985), 63–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 Miller, P. A. and Eisenberg, N., ‘The Relation of Empathy to Aggressive and Externalizing/Antisocial Behaviour’, Psychological Bulletin 103:3 (1988), 324–344CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Thompson, K. L. and Gullone, E., ‘Promotion of Empathy and Prosocial Behaviour in Children Through Humane Education’, Australian Psychologist 38:3 (2003), 175–182CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Daly, B. and Suggs, S., ‘Teachers' Experiences with Humane Education and Animals in the Elementary Classroom: Implications for Empathy Development’, Journal of Moral Education 39:1 (2010), 101–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Kohl, R. and Wenner, A., State Comparison of Life Sentenced Inmates (Milford, MA: Massachusetts Department of Correction, Office of Strategic Planning and Research, 2012)Google Scholar.

71 Alfano, M. and Russell, D., ‘Review of “Practical Intelligence and the Virtues”’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16:3, 671–673CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Miller, C., ‘Does the CAPS Model Improve Our Understanding of Personality and Character?’, in Webber, J. and Masala, A. (eds), From Personality to Virtue (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 155–185CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 West, R., ‘Virtue Ethics is Empirically Adequate: A Defense of the CAPS Response to Situationism’, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 99:S1 (2018), 79–111CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Papish, L. ‘CAPS Psychology and the Empirical Adequacy of Aristotelian Virtue Ethics’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 20:3 (2017), 537–549CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Caspi, Avshalom, et al. , ‘Personality Differences Predict Health-Risk Behaviours in Young Adulthood’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73:5 (1997), 1052–1063CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 Bertl, Bianca, et al. , ‘More or Less than the Sum of its Parts? Mapping the Dark Triad of Personality Onto a Single Dark Core’, Personality and Individual Differences 114 (2017), 140–144CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Bjorklund, David F. and Causey, Kayla B., Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2017)Google Scholar.

77 Jongh, R. De, Bolt, I., Schermer, M., and Olivier, B., ‘Botox for the Brain: Enhancement of Cognition, Mood and Pro-Social Behaviour and Blunting of Unwanted Memories’, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 32:4 (2008), 760–776CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.