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In defense of the Genetic Virtue Program: A rejoinder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Mark Walker
Mark Walker*
Affiliation:
Richard L. Hedden Chair of Advanced Philosophical Studies, Department of Philosophy, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003 [email protected]
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Extract

The target paper of this invited forum has a vaulting ambition: to convince readers that we ought to attempt to reduce evil in our world by constructing an interdisciplinary program, which I call the Genetic Virtue Program (GVP), to enhance the biological aspects of virtue. Most of the contributors to this forum are not sympathetic to the project—to put it mildly. Yet, one of the surprising things, at least to this author, is that comparatively little is said about the paper's overall ambition. Jamie Bronstein offers the idea that better socialization may be key: “No one would argue that there have not also been great evils; but the historical record doesn't support the level of improbability for further moral improvement through socialization that Walker would like to assign.” However, nowhere do I claim that there is no prospect for further moral improvement through socialization. Indeed, in recently published work I specifically recommend that we improve socialization efforts to enhance virtue by tracking prosocialization efforts.

Type
Forum: Genetic virtue, reconsidered
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 90 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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