Gordon, E. C. and Ragonese, V. (2023) Cognitive and moral enhancement: a practical proposal. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 40(3), pp. 474-487. (doi: 10.1111/japp.12619)
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Abstract
According to Persson and Savulescu, the risks posed by a morally corrupt minority's potential to abuse cognitive enhancement make it such that we have an urgent imperative to first pursue moral enhancement of humankind – and, consequently, if we are a long way from safe, effective moral enhancement, then we have at least one good reason to consider opposing further cognitive enhancement. However, as Harris points out, such a proposal seems to support delaying life-saving cognitive progress. In this article, we first show that Harris's worry can be expanded to show that Persson and Savulescu's proposal also threatens the development of moral enhancement – precisely what they suggest we have pro tanto reason to pursue. From there, we offer our own, alternative proposal – one on which cognitively enhanced researchers play a key role in the production of moral enhancement, and those in the general population who wish to be cognitively enhanced must first accept moral enhancement as an entry requirement. We engage with four substantive objections to our proposal and use these objections to refine and strengthen the details.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Gordon, Dr Emma |
| Authors: | Gordon, E. C., and Ragonese, V. |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) |
| College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy |
| Journal Name: | Journal of Applied Philosophy |
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| ISSN: | 0264-3758 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1468-5930 |
| Published Online: | 01 October 2022 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2022 The Authors |
| First Published: | First published in Journal of Applied Philosophy 40(3):474-487 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons license |
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