Benjamin Gregg on Cognitive Engineering where Severe Cognitive Disability is Indicated

Benjamin Gregg, University of Texas at Austin, will give a talk about "Cognitive Engineering where Severe Cognitive Disability is Indicated: Toward Threshold Capacities for Political Participation in Liberal Democratic Communities".

Abstract

I explore political consequences of what is not possible today, and what might never be possible: manipulation of an embryo toward a level of intelligence that would allow the future citizen autonomous participation in the political life of her liberal democratic community.

I ask: Might the goal of a liberal democratic community to provide equal citizenship — in the sense of enabling the future person’s capacity for full civic participation in political community — justify genetic engineering at the fetal stage where severe cognitive disability is indicated?

I respond in four steps:

1. in light of cognitive capacities relevant to democratic political participation, I show that cognitive disability can be a political disability as well and
2. that aspects of political participation, equally desirable for the individual citizen and for the collective good, may justify some forms of cognitive engineering.
3. I contend that alternatives to human cognitive engineering are less viable than cognitive engineering.
4. I conclude that a just community should regard, as a political imperative, the provision of the relevant cognitive engineering to the extent possible.