The evolution of moral progress and biomedical moral enhancement

In The Evolution of Moral Progress Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell advance an evolutionary explanation of moral progress by morality becoming more ‘inclusivist’. We are prepared to accept this explanation as far as it goes, but argue that it fails to explain how morality can become inclusivist in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioethics
Authors: Persson, Ingmar 1951- (Author) ; Savulescu, Julian 1963- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2019]
In: Bioethics
IxTheo Classification:NBE Anthropology
NCH Medical ethics
Further subjects:B moral enhancement
B Moral Progress
B moral inclusivism
B evoliberal evolution
B moral bioenhancement
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:In The Evolution of Moral Progress Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell advance an evolutionary explanation of moral progress by morality becoming more ‘inclusivist’. We are prepared to accept this explanation as far as it goes, but argue that it fails to explain how morality can become inclusivist in the fuller sense they intend. In fact, it even rules out inclusivism in their intended sense of moral progress, since they believe that human altruism and prosocial attitudes are essentially parochial. We also respond to their charge that the possibility of moral enhancement by biomedical means that we have defended in numerous publications assumes that moral attitudes are biologically hard-wired to an extent that implies that they are resilient to the influence of cognitive or cultural factors. Quite the contrary, we think they are more open to such influence than they seem to do.
ISSN:1467-8519
Contains:Enthalten in: Bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12592