Doctoral Degrees (Philosophy)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Philosophy) by Subject "Behavior modification"

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    Moral bioenhancement: an ethical and philosophical investigation
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Palk, Andrea Christy; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: It has been argued, in the bioethics literature, that traditional forms of moral instruction and development are no longer adequate in equipping humanity to address the urgent nature of the ethical problems facing contemporary societies. Rather than continuing to rely upon these supposedly ineffective methods, we should explore the possibility of biologically enhancing our morality. This would entail both decreasing the likelihood that we would wish to cause harm to others as well as increasing our motivation to do good. The proponents of moral bioenhancement argue that the best way of achieving this would be to isolate which affective dispositions, that are associated with moral traits, are susceptible to biological modification and to biologically enhance these dispositions. However, despite the presence of strong consequentialist arguments in favour of moral bioenhancement, it has elicited a variety of ethical concerns as well as conceptual and practical problems that would have to be addressed for it to become a coherent possibility. An ethical concern that has been raised in the literature is the concern that moral bioenhancement is wrong, in principle, and regardless of any benefits it could produce, because it risks negatively impacting phenomena that are regarded as intrinsically valuable. In particular, the concern is that moral bioenhancement could impact our moral autonomy, and thus, threaten human morality as such. This concern is based upon the view that the conditions for the exercise of autonomous moral behaviour, and thus morality itself, lie in the deliberation and choice that must be freely made in the face of competing demands. In other words, if it became possible to biologically increase our motivation to do good, thereby increasing the likelihood that we act in a way that is regarded as morally desirable, could our resultant behaviour still be regarded as morally autonomous; or, is morality solely a product of our given, unaltered biological predispositions, working in conjunction with traditional mechanisms of moral education? Will morality as we know it disappear if moral bioenhancement becomes a possibility? This dissertation contributes towards the literature through a comprehensive review in which particular conceptual, philosophical and empirical problems are addressed, as well as by providing a structured discussion of the practical and theoretical ethical concerns regarding moral bioenhancement. The dissertation includes a substantive definition of moral bioenhancement and makes further independent contributions through the analysis and application of a coherence theory of autonomy to ascertain the status for moral autonomy of various outcomes of moral bioenhancement interventions. From this analysis, a checklist of interventions that could be potentially inimical to autonomy, in terms of their outcomes, is constructed. The conclusion is that in certain cases, moral bioenhancement could produce an increase, rather than a decrease, in the level of autonomy experienced by individuals.