December 19, 2024

Should morality be enforced?

56 minutes

Here are the instructions for your office Christmas party, issued by the Public and Commercial Services Union: “Sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour are just as unacceptable at social events as they are in the workplace. This includes unwelcome comments, gestures or physical actions. Alcohol is not a defence for such conduct and employers are obligated to address these issues seriously.”

This could be considered an example of Moral Managerialism - a philosophy of enforcing, by rules and regulations, behaviour that once was left to the individual’s sense of decency. Since human beings are fallible, is this a welcome institutional safety net or an attack on an individual’s agency to do the right thing?

Philosophically, can – and should – we try to make people better behaved? There’s one approach we haven’t tried, but it’s exciting some scientists. It’s called ‘moral bio-enhancement’ – basically a drug that can make you good, a do-as-you-would-be-done-by pill, a statin for the soul. If all you have to do, to be a good person, is obey the rules or take a tablet… can human virtue exist?

Chair: Michael Buerk

Panel: Anne McElvoy, Mona Siddiqui, Giles Fraser and Inaya Folarin-Iman.

Witnesses: Ros Taylor, Zoe Strimpel, Julian Savulescu and Andrew Peterson.

Producer: Dan Tierney

Assistant Producer: Peter Everett

Editor: Tim Pemberton

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