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Protecting Minds: The Right to Mental Integrity and The Ethics of Arational Influence

Descripción del proyecto

La ética en pro de la integridad mental

En la actualidad, estamos siendo testigos de un aumento en las formas en que los gobiernos y las empresas privadas pueden influir en las actitudes, la atención y el comportamiento de las personas. Tales métodos incluyen las llamadas «tecnologías persuasivas» y «acicates», pero también formas biológicas de influencia, como la administración de medicamentos o suplementos nutricionales. Se utilizan en plataformas y juegos en línea, en el «marketing» y la promoción de la salud, y en la justicia penal y la medicina. Una gran pregunta ahora es si estas influencias infringen el derecho a la integridad mental y cuándo lo hacen. El proyecto ProtMind, financiado con fondos europeos, pretende abordar esta cuestión a través de los métodos de la filosofía analítica. Proporcionará orientación sobre qué tipos de influencia psicológica tienen una base ética aceptable.

Objetivo

Unlike most traditional forms of behavioural influence, such as rational persuasion, incentivisation and coercion, many novel forms of behavioural influence operate at a subrational level, bypassing the targeted individual's capacity to respond to reasons. Examples include bottomless newsfeeds, randomised rewards, and other 'persuasive' technologies employed by online platforms and computer game designers. They also include biological interventions, such as the use of drugs, nutritional supplements or non-invasive brain stimulation to facilitate criminal rehabilitation.
The ethical acceptability of such arational influence depends crucially on whether we possess a moral right to mental integrity, and, if so, what kinds of mental interference it rules out. Unfortunately, these questions are yet to be addressed. Though the right to bodily integrity is well-established, the possibility of a right to mental integrity has attracted little philosophical scrutiny.
The purposes of this project are to (1) determine whether and how a moral right to mental integrity can be established; (2) develop a comprehensive and fine-grained account of its scope, weight, and robustness, and (3) determine what forms of arational influence infringe it, and whether and when these might nevertheless be justified. It will deploy a tripartite methodology comprising a bottom-up, casuistic approach, drawing on reflective responses to particular interventions; a horizontal approach, in which lessons for mental integrity will be drawn from analyses of the related phenomena of coercion, manipulation, and bodily integrity; and a top-down approach, drawing on theories of moral rights.
The analysis will establish arational influence as a new area of enquiry and yield guidance on controversial novel forms of arational influence including persuasive digital technologies, salience-based nudges, treatments for childhood behavioural disorders, and biological interventions in criminal rehabilitation.

Régimen de financiación

ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

Institución de acogida

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 1 910 264,00
Dirección
WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES
OX1 2JD Oxford
Reino Unido

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Región
South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire
Tipo de actividad
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 1 910 264,00

Beneficiarios (2)