Extended mind and cognitive enhancement: moral aspects of cognitive artifacts

Cognitive biases can affect moral intuitions about cognitive enhancement

Research into cognitive biases that impair human judgment has mostly been applied to the area of economic decision-making. Ethical decision-making has been comparatively neglected. Since ethical decisions often involve very high individual as well as collective stakes, analyzing how cognitive biases affect them can be expected to yield important results. In this theoretical article, we consider...

Cognitive Neuroscience and the Structure of the Moral Mind

Cognitive Character Engagement and the Extended Mind in Bahram Tavakkoli’s Wandering in the Fog

The present study has a cognitive approach to empathy and character engagement in cinema. In discussing how through empathy and engagement with real and fictional characters, we extend our minds and enhance our cognitive abilities, the present paper studies Bahram Tavakkoli’s Wandering in the Fog (2010), to show how Andy Clark and David Chalmers’s idea of the extended mind as joined with ...

Cognitive Artifacts

Artifacts pervade our lives, our every activity. The speed, power, and intelligence of human beings are drambtically enhanced by the invention of artificial devices, so much so that tool making and usage constitute one of the defining characteristics of our species. Many artifacts make us stronger or faster, or protect us from the elements or predators, or feed and clothe us. And many artifacts...

Moral Enhancement Should Target Self-Interest and Cognitive Capacity

Current suggestions for capacities that should be targeted for moral enhancement has centered on traits like empathy, fairness or aggression. The literature, however, lacks a proper model for understanding the interplay and complexity of moral capacities, which limits the practicability of proposed interventions. In this paper, I integrate some existing knowledge on the nature of human moral be...