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Kantian Challenges for the Bioenhancement of Moral Autonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2018

Anna Frammartino Wilks
Anna Frammartino Wilks*
Affiliation:
Acadia University
*
anna.wilks@acadiau.ca
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Abstract

In the debate over moral bioenhancement, some object that biochemical, genetic, and neurological interventions aiming at enhancing moral agency threaten the autonomy of persons, as they compromise moral deliberation and motivation. Opponents of this view argue that such interventions may actually enhance autonomy itself, thereby increasing a person's capacity for moral agency. My aim is to explore the various senses of autonomy commonly appealed to in such controversies and to expose their limitations in resolving the central disputed issues. I propose that a Kantian conception of autonomy is more effective in addressing these issues, as it specifies the key features that inform an intelligible account of moral worth and moral law. A consideration of these features is typically lacking in the arguments advanced by contenders in these debates. Guided by a Kantian framework, I argue that moral bioenhancement projects directed at affecting moral autonomy are not as promising as they appear, for both metaphysical and empirical reasons.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 83: Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives , October 2018 , pp. 121 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2018 

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References

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8 For further discussion of this point see Wilks, Anna Frammartino, ‘Kantian Foundations for a Cosmocentric Ethic’, in Schwartz, James S. J. and Milligan, Tony (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration (Cham: Springer, 2016), 181‒194CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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13 Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Practical Reason, trans. and ed. by Gregor, Mary J., in Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 133–272, 198‒207 (AA 5: 72‒83)Google Scholar. Kant acknowledges, however, that not every context is a moral one, and thus not every instance of personal autonomy involves the exercise of moral autonomy.

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31 Raus, et al., in ‘On Defining Moral Enhancement: A Clarificatory Taxonomy’, 267, discuss a related distinction between active involvement and passive receiving, analogous to the distinction between indirect and direct approaches.

32 Raus, et al., ‘On Defining Moral Enhancement: A Clarificatory Taxonomy’, 268.

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38 John Harris, ‘Moral Enhancement and Freedom’, 102‒111, and Harris, John, How to Be Good: The Possibility of Moral Enhancement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 56‒109CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Although in the latter work Harris appears to have moved closer to Persson and Savulescu on many points, he still seems resolute in his claim that moral bioenhancement is bound to threaten human freedom.

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60 This point receives extended treatment in Persson, Ingmar and Savulescu, Julian, ‘Moral Bioenhancement, Freedom and Reason’, Neuroethics 9:3 (2016), 263‒268CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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62 Chalmers, David J., in The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)Google Scholar, offers a comprehensive treatment of these issues in theories of consciousness.

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64 Allison, Morality and Freedom: Kant’s Reciprocity Thesis, 401.

65 Allison, Morality and Freedom: Kant’s Reciprocity Thesis.

66 Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, 185‒188 (AA 5: 57‒59).

67 It should be noted that, on this view, even traditional forms of moral enhancement (for example, through moral education) are limited in their effect on the will, as others have also remarked.

68 One further difficulty, not treated here, is that if genuine voluntary moral bioenhancement were possible, it would give rise to the problem of free-riders. The enhanced would be rendered more vulnerable to the actions of unenhanced individuals. Moreover, those individuals who would be most willing to undergo moral enhancement would not necessarily be those in greatest need of it.