Abstract
Recent discussions about moral enhancement presuppose and recommend sets of values that relate to both the Western tradition of moral philosophy and contemporary empirical results of natural and social sciences, including moral psychology. It is argued here that this is a typology of thought that requires a fundamental interrogation. Proponents of moral enhancement do not account for important critical analyses of moral discourse, beginning with that of Friedrich Nietzsche and continuing with more prominent twentieth century thinkers such as the poststructuralist Michel Foucault, the deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, and the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. In this paper, such analyses are taken into account to highlight the need for more fundamental philosophical interrogation of the project of moral enhancement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ayala, F. J. 2009. What the biological sciences can and cannot contribute to ethics. In Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology, eds. F. J. Ayala, and R. Arp., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
de Araujo, M. 2014. Moral enhancement and political realism. Journal of Evolution and Technology 24 (2): 29–43.
DeGrazia, David. 2013. Moral enhancement, freedom, and what we (should) value in moral behavior. Journal of Medical Ethics 0: 1–8. DOI:10.1136/medethics-20120101157.
Derrida, J. 1970. Structure, sign, and play in the discourse of the human sciences. http://www.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f13/DrrdaSSP.pdf.
Derrida, J. 1978. Cogito and the history of madness. In Writing and difference, edited by Jacques Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Douglas, Thomas. 2008. Moral enhancement. Journal of Applied Philosophy 25 (3): 228–245.
Douglas, Thomas. 2014. Moral bioenhancement, freedom and reasoning. Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (6): 359–360.
Falk, Richard A. 1968. Legal order in a violent world. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Foucault, M. 1994. The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. 1965. Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason. New York: Vintage Books, Random House. https://libcom.org/files/Michel%20Foucault%20%20Madness%20and%2Civilization.pdf.
Harris, J. 2011. Moral Enhancement and Freedom. Bioethics 25: 2.
Harris, J., and Savulescu, J. 2015. A debate about moral enhancement. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 24: 8–22.
Heidegger, M. 1998. Letter on Humanism. Trans. F. A. Capuzzi. http://pacificinstitute.org/pdf/Letter_on_%20Humanism.pdf.
Husserl, E. 1970. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Kreeft, Peter. 2008. The pillars of unbelief, National Catholic Register. http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/pillars_nietzsche.htm.
Knobe, J. and Leiter, B. 2006. The case for Nietzschean moral psychology. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=816224B.
Lanyi, George A. 1970. Legal order in a violent world, by Richard A. Falk. Indiana Law Journal 45: 3. http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol45/iss3/10.
Lorenz, Konrad. 1996/2002. On aggression. New York: Routledge.
MacIntyre, A. 1988. Whose justice? Which rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
MacIntyre, A. 2006. The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, Vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mazrui, A. A. 1976. A world federation of cultures. New York: The Free Press.
Morgenthau, H. 1948. Politics among nations: The struggle for power and peace. New York: Alfred Knopf.
Morgenthau, H. 1967. After shooting: The U.S. and the Mideast. New Leader 19: 3–6.
Nietzsche, F. 1997. Daybreak: Thoughts on the prejudices of morality. Trans. R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nietzsche, F. 2006. The birth of tragedy. Albany: SUNY Press. https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61335.pdf.
Nietzsche, F. 2007. On the genealogy of morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ortega y Gasset, J. 2013. Meditación de la técnica. https://francescllorens.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/ortega_meditacion_tecnica.pdf.
Pence, C.H. 2011. Nietzsche’s aesthetic critique of Darwin. Stazione Zoologica: History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 33(2): 165–190. http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/9524/.
Person, I. and Savulescu, J. 2008. The perils of cognitive enhancement and the urgent imperative to enhance the moral character of humanity. Journal of Applied Philosophy 25(3): 162–177.
Ruse, M. 2009. The biological sciences can act as a ground for ethics. In Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology, eds. F. J. Ayala, and R. Arp, 2009. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Savulescu, J. 2005. New breeds of humans: The moral obligation to enhance. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 10(Supp 1): 36–37.
Sparrow, Robert. 2014. Better living through chemistry? A Reply to Savulescu and Persson on moral enhancement. Journal of Applied Philosophy 31(1): 23–32.
Telech, D. and Leiter, B. 2015. Nietzsche and moral psychology. Public Law And Legal Theory Working Paper No. 532, University of Chicago Law School; to appear in Sytsma J. and Buckwalter, W. eds. The Blackwell Companion to Experimental Philosophy. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2594097].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Swazo, N.K. “Unnatural” thoughts? On moral enhancement of the human animal. Med Health Care and Philos 20, 299–310 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-017-9758-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-017-9758-1