Brain-computer interfaces: Agency and the transition from ethics to politics

Abstract

Given the need of normatively assessing new technologies on the one hand, and problems with traditional approaches in ethical and legal scholarship on the other hand, a new approach is proposed. To accomplish this, the paper pursues two guiding questions: (1) how should we understand the ethical questions surrounding the development and use of BCIs in a way that is both technologically adequate and close to the phenomena?; and (2) what means are there to push technology development in the “right” direction, i.e. the direction that reasonable ethical reflection reveals as pressing? In what follows I will first introduce a distinction aimed at helping ethical evaluations of technology to get a grip on the phenomena they deal with (Sect. 2). The result is a better view on the phenomena at hand, enabling a more precise assessment based on a particular distinction between two forms of agency. I will briefly apply it to the ethics of BCIs. Second, I will broaden the perspective and ask how the ethical consideration can be applied in the real world (Sect. 3). The main emphasis will lie on outlining a philosophical move from ethics to politics. It is proposed that ethical questions are better solved by having the right political institutions, rather than having the right ethical point of view.