Abstract
According to several authors, the enhancement project incorporates a quest for hyperagency - i.e. a state of affairs in which virtually every constitutive aspect of agency (beliefs, desires, moods, dispositions and so forth) is subject to our control and manipulation. This quest, it is claimed, undermines the conditions for a meaningful and worthwhile life. Thus, the enhancement project ought to be forestalled or rejected. How credible is this objection? In this article, I argue: “not very”. I do so by evaluating four different versions of the “hyperagency” objection from four different authors. In each case I argue that the objection either fails outright or, at best, provides weak and defeasible grounds for avoiding enhancement. In addition to this, I argue that there are plausible grounds for thinking that enhancement helps, rather than hinders, us in living the good life.
Notes
This follows, roughly, the definition offered by Buchanan [1] p. 23.
Contrary to Pacholczyk and Harris [2].
Hauskeller, M. [3] uses the term “project”.
Buchanan, A. [1] uses the term “enterprise”.
Danaher [4]
Owens [5]
Owens [5], p. 176
As we’ll see below, both Michael Hauskeller’s version of the objection can be run merely from the desire or pursuit of hyperagency.
I have a separate, forthcoming article that deals with this set of objections.
Wolf [8]
Owens [5] disclaims any view about whether there is, in fact, meaning in life, or whether meaning in life is entirely subjective, but he does invoke the desire-fulfillment standard throughout his article, so I think my interpretation here is fair.
Owens [5], p. 176
Owens [5], p. 173-174
Owens [5], p. 177.
Owens [5], p. 177
It should be noted that C.S. Lewis made a very similar claim in his essay The Abolition of Man. See Lewis [12]
Nagel [13]
Summarised in Schwartz [14]
Nagel [13] p. 112.
Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R. and Todd, P.M. [15].
Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R. and Todd, P.M. [15], at 418.
References for the modulating factors discussed in this paragraph can be found in Scheibehenne et al [15], pp. 419–421.
Information can be measured formally as the entropy of a choice set, which can be increased in ways other than by adding more choices.
A maximiser is someone who looks to maximise expected utility in any given choice set; a satisficer is someone who looks to cross an acceptability threshold in any given choice set. The term “satisficing” was introduced by Herbert Simon.
Additionally, Scheibehenne et al [15] note that perceptions of quality can have an impact: if the choice set is deemed to be of low overall quality, an increased number of options is welcome, but not when it is of high quality. They also note that studies on the phenomenon may be ignoring the pleasure people experience by experimenting with something, even if they don’t ultimately like it.
Nagel [13], p. 113
I have separate forthcoming article dealing with this issue.
Vincent [18] argues for the thesis at great length. It also provides the impetus for the ongoing “Enhancing Responsibility” project. See http://enhancingresponsibility.com/ (visited 1/12/13)
I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for bringing this objection to my attention.
Danaher [4]
The goodness or benefit of the gifted is a key part of Hauskeller’s argument. See Hauskeller [19], p. 62 ff.
The other concerns the impact on social solidarity, which I will deal with in a separate paper on this topic. Omitted.
Bostrom [20]
Bostrom [20], p. 112
Hauskeller [3], p.177
Kamm [21]
Hauskeller [3], p. 180. I have doctored the original text somewhat. Kamm’s argument was originally made in response to Sandel, and so Hauskeller refers to Sandel’s claims in his discussion. But since Hauskeller is trying to defend Sandel’s argument, I take it that attributing those arguments to him is not an unfair distortion of his response to Kamm.
I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for pressing me on this point.
Nagel [22]
Nagel [22], p. 718.
Nagel [22], pp. 719–720
Nagel [22], pp. 720.
Smuts, [6]
Smuts, [6] - comments on Wolf’s Fitting Fulfillment theory.
It’s clear that Smuts’s rejects this account too.
He defines it [24] as a condition of existence that is responsible for many other conditions.
For what it is worth, Metz [26] says some positive things about transhumanism.
Metz [24], particularly the comments on morality and intellectual sophistication.
Douglas [27].
I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer on an earlier draft of this article for encouraging me to make this latter point.
I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for drawing this objection to my attention.
Metz [25], chapter 2, looks at the argument between what he calls “pure whole lifers” (i.e. those who think meaning is a property of the whole life) and “pure part lifers” (i.e. those who think meaning is a property of the parts of a life). In the end, Metz endorses a mixed view, which says that “what matters in life are both its parts and their overall relationship to one another” (p. 51).
Metz [25], pp. 38-49 reviews some of the literature.
See, however, Erler, [28] for a more detailed discussion of the role of memory and memory dampening in the “authentic life”.
Metz [25] p. 51–52 endorses this view.
References
Buchanan, Allen. 2011. Beyond humanity? the ethics of biomedical science. Oxford: OUP.
Pacholczyk, Anna, and John Harris. 2013. Dignity and enhancement. In Human dignity in bioethics, ed. Nathan J. Palpant and Stephen C. Dilley. London: Routledge.
Hauskeller, Michael. 2013. Better humans? understanding the enhancement project. London: Acumen.
Danaher, John. 2013. On the need for epistemic enhancement: Democratic legitimacy and the enhancement project. Law, Innovation and Technology 5(1): 85–112.
Owens, David. 2007. Disenchantment. In Philosophers without Gods, ed. Louise Antony. Oxford: OUP.
Smuts, Aaron. Forthcoming. The Good Cause Account of the Meaning of Life. Southern Journal of Philosophy. Author’s version available at https://sites.google.com/site/asmuts/research/download-papers/Smuts_12_TheGoodCauseAccount_version4_20121211.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 accessed 23/09/2013
Metz, Thaddeus. 2002. Recent work on the meaning of life. Ethics 112: 781–814.
Wolf, Susan. 2010. Meaning in life and Why it matters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Taylor, Richard. 2008. The meaning of life. In The meaning of life, ed. E.D. Klemke and Steven M. Cahn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bruckner, Donald. Unpublished. The Subjective Conception of Meaning in Life. Available for download at: http://www.personal.psu.edu/dwb12/blogs/donald_bruckners_webpage/working-papers.html, accessed 23/09/2013
Wielenberg, Erik. 2005. Value and virtue in a godless universe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, C.S. 2001. The Abolition of Man. New York, NY: HarperCollins. (Originally published 1944)
Nagel, Saskia. 2010. Too much of a good thing? enhancement and the burden of self-determination. Neuroethics 3: 109–119.
Schwartz, Barry. 2004. The paradox of choice: Why less is more. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Scheibehenne, B., R. Greifeneder, and P.M. Todd. 2010. Can there ever be too many options? a meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research 37: 409–425.
Roese, N.J., and A. Somerville. 2005. What we regret…and why? Personal and Social Psychological Bulletin 31(9): 1273–1285.
Beike, D.R., K.D. Markman, and F. Karadogan. 2009. What we regret most are lost opportunities: a theory of regret intensity. Personal and Social Psychological Bulletin 35(3): 385–397.
Vincent, Nicole. 2013. Enhancing responsibility. In Neuroscience and legal responsibility, ed. N.A. Vincent. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hauskeller, Michael. 2011. Human enhancement and the giftedness of life. Philosophical Papers 40(1): 55–79.
Bostrom, Nick. 2008. Why I want to be a posthuman when I grow up. In Medical enhancement and posthumanity, ed. Bert Gordijn and Ruth Chadwick, 107–136. Berlin: Springer.
Kamm, Frances. 2009. What is and what is not wrong with enhancement? In Human enhancement, ed. J. Savulescu and N. Bostrom. Oxford: OUP.
Nagel, Thomas. 1971. The absurd. The Journal of Philosophy 68: 716–727.
Metz, Thaddeus. 2003. Utilitarianism and the Meaning of Life. Utilitas 15: 50–70.
Metz, Thaddeus. 2011. The good, the true, and the beautiful: toward a unified account of great meaning in life. Religious Studies 47: 389–409.
Metz, Thaddeus. 2013. Meaning in life: an analytic study. Oxford: OUP.
Metz, Thaddeus. 2009. Imperfection as sufficient for a meaningful life: How much is enough? In New waves in the philosophy of religion, ed. Y. Nagasawa and E. Wielenberg. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Douglas, Thomas. 2013. Enhancing moral conformity and enhancing moral worth. Neuroethics, forthcoming. doi:10.1007/s12152-013-9183-y.
Erler, Alexander. 2011. Does memory modification threaten our authenticity? Neuroethics 4(3): 235–249.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Brian Earp and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Danaher, J. Hyperagency and the Good Life – Does Extreme Enhancement Threaten Meaning?. Neuroethics 7, 227–242 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-013-9200-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-013-9200-1