Philosophy of Medicine and Sport workshop

Tom Douglas

Tom Douglas

The next meeting of the Philosophy of Medicine and Sport Workshop will take place on Tuesday, 5 May, 5.30-7.00 p.m. in K0.19, King’s College London, Strand Campus.

Tom Douglas​ (Oxford) will speak on ‘Enhancement and Desert’.

Tom is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and a Golding Junior Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford.

All welcome to attend.

 

Abstract

It is sometimes claimed that those who succeed with the aid of biomedical enhancement technologies deserve the rewards associated with their success less, other things being equal, than those who succeed through training or education. This claim captures some widely held intuitions, has been implicitly endorsed by participants in social-psychological research, and helps to undergird two otherwise puzzling objections to the use of enhancement technologies: that enhancement produces unfair advantages, and that it undermines the value of human achievement. I consider whether the claim can be provided with a rational basis by examining three arguments that might be offered in its favour. These appeal respectively to the views that desert is diminished by the adoption of morally undesirable means, the avoidance of effort, and the partial responsibility of others for our achievements.