Autonomy and Behavior Control

TLDR

Technology raises important questions about human nature and moral views on influencing others, linking theoretical concerns with practical claims about the effectiveness, efficiency, and moral legitimacy of behavior‑modifying methods such as operant conditioning, psychotropic drugs, brain stimulation, and psychosurgery. The study examines whether various behavior‑control techniques affect autonomy differently, a question that matters only if autonomy is both possible and desirable. The authors argue that a sufficient explanatory framework for human behavior can dispense with free will, dignity, and autonomy.

Abstract

nology raises important issues for our understanding of human nature and our moral views about how people ought to influence one another. On the theoretical level we find claims that an adequate explanatory scheme for understanding human behavior can dispense with notions of free will, dignity, and autonomy. On the practical level we are faced with claims of effectiveness, efficiency, and moral legitimacy for methods of influencing people such as operant conditioning, psychotropic drugs, electrical stimulation of the brain, and psychosurgery. The theoretical and practical issues are, of course, linked. Our views as to what it is permissible to do to people reflect our views about the existence and desirability of various conditions. If autonomy is neither desirable nor possible then the question whether different methods affect autonomy in different ways will hardly be an interesting one. If, on the other hand, autonomy is both possible and desirable, then the possibility that various techniques of controlling behavior affect autonomy in distinctive ways, and to different degrees, may play a crucial role in our normative debates about such matters.