Transformative Ethics
Image courtesy of Cochlear Americas
Transformative choice
Imagine that you have been deaf since birth. A cochlear implant would allow you to hear for the very first time. (You can see such an implant in the image above.) With your new ability, your life would be completely different, for you would encounter a range of revelatory new experiences. You would also change as a person. You might even come to regret having been born deaf, which you now see as an important part of your identity. In short, you face a transformative choice (TC). Should you accept the implant?
Challenges
What makes it especially difficult to answer these questions is that TC s are often both personally and epistemically transformative. They alter the person and her preferences so it is not clear whose preferences we should honour, the pre-transformative or the post-transformative person. We may also acquire a certain kind of experience we could not even grasp before. How can we make an informed choice, if we do not even grasp the outcome of our choice?
Main project aims
To answer the following foundational questions:
How do we determine what is better for a person who is affected by a TC?
How can we make prudential choices when they are transformative?
What does morality require us to do when we make a TC?
To develop frameworks for ethics, prudence, and well-being that can be used to answer these questions.
To apply these general questions to the value of health.
