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    Biomedical enhancements are not less authentic than tradi... — Carmelics
    Home/Bioethics
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    Biomedical enhancements are not less authentic than traditional methods of self-improvement.

    Bioethics
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Authenticity, per Charles Taylor's expressivist account, requires that actions express one's deepest commitments and self-understanding, not any particular causal pathway.
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    • 2.A person who uses modafinil to sustain focus on work they deeply value expresses that value no less than one who trains through sleep discipline.
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    • 3.The causal mechanism producing a trait is morally irrelevant to whether that trait genuinely belongs to the self, as Parfit's reductionist view of personal identity implies.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Sandel's objection that enhancement reflects a 'Promethean' refusal of giftedness presupposes a fixed, pre-social self that liberal autonomy theory explicitly rejects.
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    • 2.If traditional self-improvement through education reshapes cognition authentically, then neurochemical reshaping of cognition differs only in mechanism, not in its relationship to selfhood.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.If an individual has freely chosen to use a biomedical enhancement on the basis of rational deliberation ('speech and deeds'), the enhancement reflects the individual's agency rather than bypassing it.
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    • 2.Traditional methods of improving one's capacities are considered authentic because they involve active, comprehensible choice.
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    • 3.The same condition of active, comprehensible choice can apply to the decision to use biomedical enhancements.
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    Topics

    Bioethics

    Connections

    1 topic

    Moral Responsibility3 linked

    Related

    A person who uses modafinil to sustain focus on work they deeply value expresses...Authenticity, per Charles Taylor's expressivist account, requires that actions e...If an individual has freely chosen to use a biomedical enhancement on the basis ...If traditional self-improvement through education reshapes cognition authentical...
    +4 moreShow less
    Sandel's objection that enhancement reflects a 'Promethean' refusal of giftednes...The causal mechanism producing a trait is morally irrelevant to whether that tra...The same condition of active, comprehensible choice can apply to the decision to...Traditional methods of improving one's capacities are considered authentic becau...

    Similar

    Biomedical enhancements undermine authenticity because individuals can...82%It is natural for humans to enhance themselves.79%Traditional methods of improving one's capacities are considered authe...77%Efforts to improve traits that are at no diagnosable risk of deteriora...74%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: enhancement
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    One style of argument for the claim that enhancements undermine authenticity is to contend that we could claim no personal credit for accomplishments that are the result of biomedical enhancements, because the biomedical interventions that caused improvements in our capacities would supersede our own agency in authoring the achievement (Sandel 2007). Defenders of this perspective argue that while, for example, education, training, and practice proceed through “speech and deeds” that are comprehe
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit