ABSTRACT
Transhumanism has been characterized as “the world's most dangerous idea.” Although both proponents and critics of transhumanist visions appear to take pleasure in this estimation, we are going to illustrate that transhumanism is not quite such a startling idea as usually assumed when focusing on improving or even overcoming “human nature.” The more interesting philosophical questions in the context of transhumanism refer to the debate on enhancing human properties and capacities, which are usually considered a means for realizing transhumanist aims. In particular, this chapter scrutinizes conceptual and normative presuppositions of moral enhancement of which several versions have been proposed by different authors. It examines diverse suggestions for enhancing morality that has been brought forward: from traditional “old style” enhancement via education, pharmaceutical, and biotechnical moral enhancement to the latest suggestion for moral enhancement by means of artificial intelligence.
