Main description:

In light of the potential novel applications of neurotechnologies in psychiatry and the current debate on moral bioenhancement, this book outlines the reasons why more conceptual work is needed to inform the scientific and medical community, and society at large, about the implications of moral bioenhancement before a possible, highly hypothetical at this point, broad acceptance, and potential implementation in areas such as psychiatry (e.g., treatment of psychopathy), or as a measure to prevent crime in society. The author does not negate the possibility of altering or manipulating moral behavior through technological means. Rather he argues that the scope of interventions is limited because the various options available to "enhance morality" improve, or simply manipulate, some elements of moral behavior and not the moral agent per se in the various elements constitutive of moral agency. The concept of Identity Integrity is suggested as a potential framework for a responsible use of neurotechnologies in psychiatry to avoid human beings becoming orderers and orderables of technological manipulations.

Contents:

1 Introduction.1.1 Biology Is Not Destiny.1.2 Overview of the Book.2 The Scope and Limits of Moral Bioenhancement.2.1 Conceptual Issues and Scientific Realities.2.2 Becoming Fit for the Future.3 Moral Bioenhancement and the Clinical Ideal.3.1 The Challenge of Defining Enhancement.3.2 The Clinical Ideal and Enhancement.3.3 Clinical Ideal and Psychiatric Disorders with Moral Pathologies.4 Neurobiology, Morality, and Agency.4.1 The Neurobiology of Morality.4.2 Moral Judgments and the Moral Self.4.3 Phronesis and the Virtues.4.4 The Autonomous Modern Self.4.5 The Pathologizing of Human Behavior.5 Techno-Science, Politics, and the Common Good.5.1 Post-academic Science.5.2 The Implications of Postmodernity for Science and Technology.5.3 Beyond the Postmodern Cacophony: Deliberative Democracy.5.4 Applying the Deliberative Democracy Paradigm.6 Neurotechnologies and Psychopathy.6.1 Psychiatry and Moral Bioenhancement.6.2 Psychopathy.6.3 The Diagnosis of Psychopathy.6.4 Treatment of Psychopathy.6.5 Feasibility, Usefulness, and Limitations of Neurotechnologies.7 Punishment, Responsibility, and Brain Interventions.7.1 Retribution Versus Rehabilitation.7.2 Dangerousness and Prevention.7.3 Capacity and Responsibility.7.4 Moral and Legal Responsibility.8 Identity Integrity in Psychiatry.8.1 Technology and the Current Anthropological Identity Crisis.8.2 Homo Sapiens Interacting with Machines.8.3 Identity Integrity.9 Epilogue: Final Thoughts for the Path to Future Philosophical Explorations.