Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T09:17:30.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The reversal test, status quo bias, and opposition to human cognitive enhancement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Steve Clarke
Steve Clarke*
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, Canberra, Australia Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
*
Email: stclarke@csu.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bostrom and Ord’s reversal test has been appealed to by many philosophers to substantiate the charge that preferences for status quo options are motivated by status quo bias. I argue that their characterization of the reversal test needs to be modified, and that their description of the burden of proof it imposes needs to be clarified. I then argue that there is a way to meet that burden of proof which Bostrom and Ord fail to recognize. I also argue that the range of circumstances in which the reversal test can be usefully applied is narrower than they recognize.

Keywords

Argument from riskbackfiringburden of proofhuman cognitive enhancementreversal teststatus quo bias
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , pp. 369 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, C. J. 2003. “The Psychology of Doing Nothing: The Effect of Imagining Behavioural Scripts on Personal Intentions.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45: 293–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annas, G. J., Andrews, L. B., and Isasi, R. M.. 2002. “Protecting the Endangered Human: Toward an International Treaty Prohibiting Cloning and Other Inheritable Alterations.” American Journal of Law and Medicine 28: 151–178.Google Scholar
Biswas-Diener, R., Vittersø, J., and Diener, E.. 2005. “Most People Are Pretty Happy, but There is Cultural Variation: The Inughuit, the Amish and the Massai.” Journal of Happiness Studies 6: 205–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bostrom, Nick. 2010. “Letter from Utopia.” An earlier version was published in Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology 2(1): 1–7. Version 1.9. Accessed November 10, 2014. http://www.nickbostrom.com/utopia.pdfGoogle Scholar
Bostrom, Nick, and Ord, Toby. 2006. “The Reversal Test: Eliminating Status Quo Bias in Applied Ethics.” Ethics 116: 656–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Briggle, Adam. 2014. “Bioconservatism as Customised Science.” In The Customization of Science: The Impact of Political and Religious Worldview on Contemporary Science, edited by Fuller, S., Stenmark, M. and Zackariasson, U., 176–192. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Buchanan, Allen. 2011. Beyond Humanity? The Ethics of Biomedical Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, S. M., and Wahlert, L.. 2015. “Is Disability Conservation Rooted in Status Quo Bias?” American Journal of Bioethics 15(6): 20–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Brigard, Felipe, 2010. “If You like It, Does It Matter If It is Real?” Philosophical Psychology 23(1): 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Jared. 2012. The World until Yesterday. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Dorsey, Dale. 2010. “Preference, Welfare and the Status-Quo Bias.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88(3): 535–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eidelman, Scott, and Crandall, Christian S.. 2012. “Bias in Favour of the Status Quo.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 6(3): 270–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 2002. Our Posthuman Future. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Gilovich, T., Griffin, D., and Kahneman, D.. 2002. Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huxley, Aldous. [1932] 2007. Brave New World. London: Vintage.Google Scholar
Huxley, Aldous. [1958] 2007. Brave New World Revisited. London: Vintage.Google Scholar
Kahane, Guy, and Savulescu, Julian. 2015. “Normal Human Variation: Refocussing the Enhancement Debate.” Bioethics 29(2): 133–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Kass, Leon. 2003. “Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Perfection.” The New Atlantis, Spring, 9–28.Google Scholar
Kekes, John. 1998. A Case for Conservatism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nebel, Jacob M. 2015. “Status Quo Bias, Rationality, and Conservatism about Value.” Ethics 125(2): 449–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nordmann, Alfred. 2007. “If and Then: A Critique of Speculative NanoEthics.” NanoEthics 1: 31–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persson, Ingmar, and Savulescu, Julian. 2012. Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Russell. 2015. “The Disvalue of Genetic Diversity, or: How (Not) to Treat a Sandelian Ethos on Steroids.” American Journal of Bioethics 15(6): 29–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Russell and Buchanan, Allen. Forthcoming. “The Evolution of Moral Enhancement.” In The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, edited by Clarke, S., Savulescu, J., Coady, C. A. J., Giubilini, A., and Sanyal, S., 239–260. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rippon, Simon. 2012. “How to Reverse the Organ Shortage.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 29(4): 344–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritov, I., and Baron, J.. 1992. “Status Quo and Omission Biases.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 5: 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacher, George A. 1975. “Maturation and Longevity in Relation to Cranial Capacity in Hominid Evolution.” In Primate Functional Morphology and Evolution, edited by Tuttle, R. H., 417–442. The Hague: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sandberg, Anders. 2011. “Cognitive Enhancement: Uploading the Brain.” In Enhancing Human Capacities, edited by Savulescu, J., ter Muelen, R. and Kahane, G., 71–91. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sandel, Michael. 2004. “The Case against Perfection: What’s Wrong with Designer Children, Bionic Athletes, and Genetic Engineering.” The Atlantic 3(293): 51–62.Google Scholar
Sparrow, R. 2015. “Imposing Genetic Diversity.” American Journal of Bioethics 15(6): 2–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weidemann, Christian. 2009. “Towards a Heuristic for Nanoethics: The Onus of Proof in Applied Ethics. Uncovering Status Quo and Other Biases.” In Size Matters: Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Nanobiotechnology and Nano-Medicine, edited byAch, J. A. and Weidemann, C., 117–131. Münster: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Dominic. 2009. “Challenging the Status Quo.” Journal of Bioethical Enquiry 6(2): 235–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar