Neuroethics and Philosophy in Responsible Research and Innovation: The Case of the Human Brain Project
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Neuroethics and Philosophy in Responsible Research and Innovation: The Case of the Human Brain Project Arleen Salles
&
Kathinka Evers & Michele Farisco
Received: 16 March 2018 / Accepted: 27 May 2018 # The Author(s) 2018
Abstract Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is an important ethical, legal, and political theme for the European Commission. Although variously defined, it is generally understood as an interactive process that engages social actors, researchers, and innovators who must be mutually responsive and work towards the ethical permissibility of the relevant research and its products. The framework of RRI calls for contextually addressing not just research and innovation impact but also the background research process, specially the societal visions underlying it and the norms and priorities that shape scientific agendas. This requires the integration of anticipatory, inclusive, and responsive dimensions, and the nurturing of a certain type of reflexivity among a variety of stakeholders, from scientists to funders. In this paper, we do not address potential limitations but focus on the potential contribution of philosophical reflection to RRI in the context of the Ethics and Society subproject of the Human Brain Project (HBP). We show how the type of conceptual analysis provided by philosophically oriented approaches theoretically and ethically broadens research and innovation
within the HBP. We further suggest that overt inclusion of philosophical reflection can promote the aims and objectives of RRI. Keywords Responsible research and innovation . Reflexivity . Conceptual analysis . Neuroethics . Human identity . Consciousness . Poverty
Background
A. Salles Programa de Neuroetica, Centro de Investigaciones Filosoficas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is an important ethical, legal, and political theme for the European Commission. Although variously defined, it is generally understood as an interactive process that engages social actors, researchers, and innovators who must be mutually responsive and work towards the ethical permissibility of the relevant research and its products [1]. RRI arose in response to the pace of technological and scientific research and related applications. With the prospect of new discoveries came an increasing awareness of the profound global and intergenerational impact of innovations, and of the limits of any policy that focuses just on risk assessment and regulation. [2, 3]1 Of course, the view that research needs to be responsible is hardly new; the importance of acknowledging one’s responsibility (legal and moral) is and has long been implicit within the description of many roles,
M. Farisco Biogem Genetic Research Centre, Ariano Irpino, AV, Italy
1 This does not entail that there are no additional drivers for RRI. See Rip, 2016.
A. Salles (*) : K. Evers : M. Farisco Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University, Box 564, 751 22 Uppsala, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]
A. Salles et
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