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Moral enhancement and cheapened achievement: Psychedelics, virtual reality and AI

Summary

This paper examines whether using drugs or technology to become a more moral person cheapens the value of that achievement, similar to debates about ‘cheating’ through cognitive enhancers. The authors argue that realistic applications of psychedelics, virtual reality, and AI—when used to facilitate rather than replace moral learning—can actually preserve what makes moral improvement valuable: our own effort, reflection, and engagement with moral reasons.

Background

The ‘Cheapened Achievement Argument’ (CAA) has been applied to cognitive and athletic enhancement, suggesting that performance-improving drugs or technologies diminish the value of resulting achievements. This critique has received considerably less attention in the domain of moral enhancement, where the question of whether using biotechnologies rather than traditional moral development methods would cheapen moral achievements remains underexplored.

Objective

To examine whether the Cheapened Achievement Argument applies to moral enhancement and to determine if more realistic and viable forms of moral enhancement can evade this critique. The authors specifically investigate three examples of adjunctive-facilitative moral enhancement: psychedelics, Socratic AI, and virtual reality-based empathy training.

Results

The analysis demonstrates that while determinative moral enhancement may indeed fall prey to the CAA, adjunctive-facilitative forms do not undermine effort and ability. Rather, such technologies require substantial agent investment, critical engagement, and reflective practice. Psychedelics facilitate moral learning through altered perspectives; VR enhances reflective empathy through immersive perspective-taking; and Socratic AI promotes moral reasoning through dialogue, all while preserving human agency and deliberation.

Conclusion

The most promising and practical forms of moral enhancement—those that facilitate rather than determine moral improvement—successfully evade the cheapened achievement objection. These adjunctive technologies complement traditional moral development by enhancing the agent’s capacity to engage with moral reasons while preserving the critical reflection, effort, and commitment that constitute valuable moral achievement.
  • Published in:Bioethics,
  • Study Type:Philosophical Analysis,
  • Source: PMID: 39564905
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