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What It’s Like to Be Good

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2012

JOHN HARRIS
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Abstract

In this issue of CQ we introduce a new feature, “By Invitation,” in which noted bioethicists are invited to reflect on vital current issues. Our first invitee, John Harris, will subsequently assume editorship of this section.

Type
By Invitation
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 293 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1. Sen, A.The Idea of Justice. London: Penguin Books; 2009Google Scholar, at 31. I am indebted to John Coggon for reminding me of this.

2. Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3. Brutus is addressing Cassius. Shakespeare, W.The Arden Shakespeare, Complete Works. Proudfoot, R, Thomson, A, Kastan, DS, eds. Walton-on-Thames: Thomas Nelson; 1998.Google Scholar

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5. See also Harris, J.Moral enhancement and freedom. Bioethics 2011;25(2):102–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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7. See also Harris, J, Chan, S.Moral behaviour is not what it seems. PNAS Early Edition 2010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; available at www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1015001107 (last accessed 10 Oct 2011).

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9. Kass, LR. The wisdom of repugnance. The New Republic 1997 June 2:17–26.Google ScholarPubMed I discussed Kass’s approach in Harris, J.Enhancing Evolution. Princeton (NJ) and Oxford: Princeton University Press; 2007, chapter 8.Google Scholar

10. In a letter to Humphrey House, 11 April 1940. The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Vol. 1. London: Penguin, Harmondsworth; 1970, at 583. See my more detailed discussion of the problems with this type of reasoning in Wonderwoman and Superman: The Ethics of Human Biotechnology. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1992, chapter 2, and in my Violence and Responsibility. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; 1980, at 112. Orwell’s idea has been taken up by others. See Chapman, HA. In bad taste: Evidence for the oral origins of moral disgust. Science 2009;323:1222–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

11. I first outlined the basics of olfactory ethics in my book Violence and Responsibility; see note 10, Harris 1980, at 111ff.

12. Here the argument follows lines taken in Enhancing Evolution; see note 9, Harris 2007, at 129ff.

13. Wittgenstein, L.Philosophical Investigations. 3rd ed. Anscombe GEM, trans.Oxford: Blackwell; 2001Google Scholar, at 79e, para. 265.

14. Ibid.

15. Inter alia and most recently in Harris, J. “Ethics is for bad guys!”—Putting the “moral” into moral enhancement. Bioethics forthcoming.Google Scholar

16. Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. See note 2, Shakespeare 1998.

17. Locke, J.An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Pringle-Pattison, AS, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1964, book II, chapter 27, p. 188.Google Scholar Locke formulated this definition in the middle of the seventeenth century.

18. Ray Tallis makes this point at some length and brilliantly in a number of places, particularly in his recent book Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity. Durham (NC): Acumen; 2011.

19. Ronald Dworkin elaborated this requirement for detailed and theory-based justification for moral claims in his Taking Rights Seriously. London: Duckworth; 1977, especially chapters 7 and 8.

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21. See also note 15, Harris forthcoming.

22. See note 6, Crockett et al. 2010.

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24. Harris, J, Chan, S.Moral behaviour is not what it seems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010;107:E.183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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26. From “Monty Python’s Previous Record” and “Monty Python’s Instant Record Collection.” Originally transcribed by Dan Kay (). Fixed up and added “Complaint” and “Being Hit on the Head lessons” Aug/87 by Tak Ariga ().

27. Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. See note 2, Shakespeare 1998.

28. As Crockett et al. note. See note 6, Crockett et al. 2010.

29. See note 6, Crockett et al. 2010.

30. See note 24, Harris, Chan 2010.

31. See note 23, Crockett et al. 2010.

32. See note 23, Crockett et al. 2010.

33. In my Violence and Responsibility (see note 10, Harris 1980), I argue this point at some length.

34. Will those with increased serotonin be less likely to accept necessary surgery for themselves or their loved ones?

35. See note 9, Harris 2007.

36. Greely, H, Sahakian, B, Harris, J, Kessler, R, Gazzaniga, M, Campbell, P, et al. . Towards responsible use of cognitive enhancing drugs by the healthy. Nature 2008 Dec 18/25;456:18–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

37. See note 5, Harris 2011.

38. See note 3, Douglas 2008.

39. Chan, S, Harris, J.Does a fish need a bicycle? Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2011;20(3):484–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. Manningham-Buller E. Reith Lecture BBC Radio 4, 20 September 2011.

41. I am indebted to John Coggon for important suggestions in this section.

42. See note 5, Harris 2011.

43. Huxley, A.Brave New World (1932). London: Vintage, Random House; 2007.Google Scholar

44. Orwell, G.Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). London: Penguin Books; 1989.Google Scholar