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Enhancing genetic virtue: A project for twenty-first century humanity?

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 88003-8001 mwalker@nmsu.edu
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Abstract

The Genetic Virtue Project (GVP) is a proposed interdisciplinary effort between philosophers, psychologists and geneticists to discover and enhance human ethics using biotechnology genetic correlates of virtuous behavior. The empirical plausibility that virtues have biological correlates is based on the claims that (a) virtues are a subset of personality, specifically, personality traits conceived of as “enduring behaviors,” and (b) that there is ample evidence that personality traits have a genetic basis. The moral necessity to use the GVP for moral enhancement is based on the claims that we should eliminate evil (as understood generically, not religiously), as some evil is a function of human nature. The GVP is defended against several ethical and political criticisms.

Keywords

Virtuemoral enhancementgenetic engineeringpre-implantation genetic diagnosis
Type
Research Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , September 2009 , pp. 27 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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