Genetic Determinism and the Problem of Moral Responsibility or is Morality Possible Without Freedom?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24234/wisdom.v24i4.949Keywords:
morality, ethics, evolutionary ethics, bioethics, determinism, moral responsibility, genetic reductionism, ethical principles, freedom and subordinationAbstract
The research devoted to freedom and responsibility proceeds only “inside” philosophical knowledge, and therefore there is a certain limitation. Only the synthesis of ideological positions will allow to open the veil of secrets of human actions. The article states that there are two clearly expressed positions regarding the causes of human behavior: the first is based on the theory of the synthetic evolution and emphasizes its biological (genetic) origin; the second rejects the biological conditionality of actions, because deterministic statements make people perceive their genome as an inescapable fate.
To agree with the lack of freedom means to accept the lack of moral responsibility. Without asserting the truth of the predestination of human behavior, the authors believe that such “philosophical perseverance” can not only lead scientists to a dead end, but also slow down the development of those studies that are associated with the introduction of new technologies, including medical ones based on discoveries in the field of genetics. Therefore, in order to “remove” ethical restrictions, the authors attempted to prove the possibility of freedom even within the framework of deterministic behavior by clarifying the essence of “subordination to the principle”, with which moral responsibility is associated.
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