Engineering Holiness: A Kantian Discussion on the Ethics of Moral Enhancement

Speaker: Prof. Evangelos Protopapadakis (University of Athens)

Abstract       

This lecture will examine the prospect of moral enhancement through external – specifically technological – means in light of Kant’s concept of Holiness (Heiligkeit), as distinct from his account of virtue (Tugend).

Prof. Protopapadakis will focus on the complex and controversial notion of the so-called “God machine,” a hypothetical device designed to neutralise morally detrimental human inclinations and thereby reduce wrongdoing. He will argue that such a device need not be incompatible with individual freedom and autonomy; on the contrary, it may function as a means of securing both.

The lecture will further explore the moral permissibility of such interventions in cases where individuals voluntarily accept limitations on certain aspects of their autonomy to respond to a perceived divine call to holiness and to attain a higher form of moral autonomy in the Kantian sense. Within this framework, externally imposed or self-chosen constraints on inclination may be understood not as heteronomous interference, but as instruments facilitating the effective governance of the will by practical reason.

Prof. Protopapadakis will suggest that the pursuit of holiness, understood as moral perfection, may require the deliberate restriction of our phenomenal nature and the corresponding strengthening of our noumenal one, even at some cost to autonomy. Such a conclusion challenges the tendency, prevalent in dominant moral traditions, to treat autonomy as an absolute and overriding value, and invites a reassessment of the conditions under which genuine moral freedom is realised.

Bionotes

Evangelos D. Protopapadakis is Professor of Applied Ethics and Bioethics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he is also Director of the NKUA Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory. He is President of the Greek Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa), Director of the Interdisciplinary Master’s Programme ‘Animals: Ethics, Law, Welfare’, Academic Coordinator of the Master’s Programme Bioethics – Medical Ethics at the Open University of Cyprus, Member of the Synodal Committee on Bioethics of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Member of the National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics, Member of the National Authority of Medically Assisted Reproduction, Member of the Bioethics Committee of the University Research Institute of Mental Health “Kostas Stefanis,” Member of the Research Ethics and Deontology Committee of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, and Chair of the Research Ethics and Deontology Committee of the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos.” He has taught as a Visiting Professor at universities in Germany, Croatia, Romania, and Serbia.

He has published six monographs, twelve edited collective volumes, and over ninety journal articles and book chapters. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the international, peer-reviewed open-access journal Conatus – Journal of Philosophy.

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For further information please contact the Department’s Research Seminars series convenor, Prof. Jean-Paul De Lucca.