Moral Responsibility of Involuntary Action

Christian Perring of Dowling College, who edits the helpful "Metapsychology Online Reviews" site, presented an interesting paper at Cambridge Hospital, MA last week about moral responsibility of addicts and others who may not have full control of their harmful actions.

The thrust of the argument was that addicts can be morally blameworthy for their harmful behaviors even if they were compelled by the addiction. The rationale was that the addict behaves in a way that he knows will cause harm. The relationship, then is damaged, and the person hurt feels blame towards the person who has acted harmfully. The addict, or the mentally ill person, is still blameworthy for their actions because 1) the person knew that the action would harm the other person and 2) they performed the action nonetheless.

The reaction to this conclusion was surprisingly receptive. However, as the issue was pushed, it seems that there was more of a gradient of blameworthiness. For instance, someone who performs a malicious act purely for malice is very blameworthy. On the other end of the spectrum, the epileptic who happens to hit someone is not blameworthy at all, because he had no intention of performing the action.

Muchnik on Kant's account of evil

I went to Pablo Muchnik's (Sienna College) talk on Kant's account of evil this week at Gordon College. From what I gather, an evil agent, according to Kant, has to not only will from an evil maxim, but have a large selection of such maxims at his disposal--has to have an evil character. What makes Madoff evil, for instance, is not just him setting up a Ponzi scheme, but his continued maintenance and deception, which suggests his evil character.

Assuming that all this deception, etc. was willfully chosen (the only grounds for moral responsibility for Kant), I feel contempt for this man. I see him as a less-than-human being. But this is just to deny his willful choice and thus his moral responsibility, says Kant. So, I'm in a pickle. If I feel contempt, Madoff is not morally responsible, as moral judgments are inadmissible for non-moral beings. It's not at all clear to me *what* the appropriate reaction to Madoff is. Perhaps the Kantian would respond that it is my duty to forgive. So be it. But I can't will myself to do this even if it is my duty.

The Sensory Substitution Experience

I was the first trained test subject on Zachary Capalbo's Kromophone sonification device. After just four hours of initial training, we took a trip to Harvard Square in Boston, MA. Using the sensory substitution device, which converts visual information from a camera into sound, I was able to navigate crowded streets, stairs, and life in the world, all while blindfolded.

You would think that this process would impair my normal auditory capabilities, but I was able to successfully stop before walking out into a busy road. There came a point when the sensation the device gave me in the form of unfamiliar sounds turned into a perception of shapes and colors, which was separate and distinct from normal auditory information, such as the sound of cars in city traffic. In a way you could think of it as, when learning a new word in a foreign language, there comes a point when you cease to translate the word in your head every time you hear it, and instead automatically understand its meaning.

At one point I came across a low, cylindrical, blue object that I could not identify. From the shape, it looked (or rather, sounded) like a fire hydrant, but I was also hearing that it was blue. I was right, it was both a fire hydrant, and blue, but having never seen or heard of a blue fire hydrant before, I concluded that it was not.

This seems to indicate that the device can be used to correctly identify objects, with sufficient practice and experience. Admittedly, it would require significant practice to 'see' with something near a normal proficiency level (it wasn't exactly amusing when I crashed into a squeaky clean window). But, I think this experience shows at least that the technology has potential for practical application.

Sara Hendren on Art and TechScience

Sara Hendren's art centers on the question of whether "disabilities" are deficiencies or differences. Adaptive art is an attempt to understand what it would mean for a disability to be a mere difference and under certain circumstances, a preference.

We collaborated on an exhibit going on now at the Bennett Center for the Arts (Wenham, MA) called, "I Never Asked to be Made Human." Come out to have your adaptive mind blown!

Orchestrating Color

Guido Bologna, of the University of Applied Science in Geneva Switzerland, has one of the more elegant sensory substitution devices available. The "See ColOr" device modulates distinctive tones that sound like instruments in an orchestra, allowing users to easily match same-colored objects and negotiate colored pathways. See and hear it for yourself here.