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    Kantian Challenges for the Bioenhancement of Moral Autonomy
    Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83 121-143. 2018.
    In the debate over moral bioenhancement, some object that biochemical, genetic, and neurological interventions aiming at enhancing moral agency threaten the autonomy of persons, as they compromise moral deliberation and motivation. Opponents of this view argue that such interventions may actually enhance autonomy itself, thereby increasing a person's capacity for moral agency. My aim is to explore the various senses of autonomy commonly appealed to in such controversies and to expose their limit…Read more
  •  15
    Given the central place organisms occupy in Kant’s account of living nature, it might seem unlikely that his claims about biological wholes could be relevant to current debates over the problem of biological individuality. These debates acknowledge the multiple realizability of biological individuality in vastly different forms, including parts of organisms and complex groups of organisms at various levels of the biological hierarchy, sparking much controversy in attempts to characterize a biolo…Read more
  •  10
    Robotic Responsibility
    In Matteo Vincenzo D'Alfonso & Don Berkich (eds.), On the Cognitive, Ethical, and Scientific Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence, Springer Verlag. pp. 283-297. 2019.
    This paper considers the question of whether humanoid robots may legitimately be viewed as moral agents capable of participating in the moral community. I defend the view that, in a strict sense, i.e., one informed by the fundamental criteria for moral agency, they cannot, but that they may, nonetheless, be incorporated into the moral community in another way. Specifically, I contend that they can be considered to be responsible for moral action upon an expanded view of collective responsibility…Read more
  •  3
    Considerable conceptual shifts were required to prepare the philosophers of the early modern period for a fully naturalist approach to the study of living beings. Two women philosophers of the seventeenth century, Anne Conway and Margaret Cavendish, made significant contributions to this shift. Despite their rejection of dualism, their views are not typically considered instrumental in advancing this revolutionary approach to the explanation of biological phenomena, as they both defended radical…Read more
  • Kantian Challenges for the Bioenhancement of Moral Autonomy
    In Michael Hauskeller & Lewis Coyne (eds.), Moral Enhancement: Critical Perspectives, Cambridge University Press. 2018.