Post-Doc, Health, Ethics & Society
About
My research is covered by a comprehensive interest in both conceptual and ethical questions at the interface of (neuro)biology/psychology and (disordered) human behaviour. It is triggered by recent developments in the behavioural- and neurosciences and the frequent suggestion that desires, beliefs, intentions, or personal choices would have no impact on what people do, but that instead human behaviour (including disordered or deviant behaviour) were caused by (disordered or deviant) features of a person’s environment and/or brain. I consider this to entail important ethical and conceptual challenges which I am happy to face.
My current research is in ethics. It investigates the ethical and societal implications of a genomics and neurobiology approach to antisocial behaviour (ASB). Currently, research in neurobiology is considered of increasing significance for the explanation of antisocial behaviour. This raises great hopes and expectations with regard to, for example, more effective forms of prevention and intervention, but also great concerns about a variety of pitfalls and caveats. My research evaluates current scientific developments concerning ASB from an ethical point of view, integrating a theoretical ethical analysis with qualitative empirical stakeholder research.
Before, that is, during my PhD period, my research was in analytic philosophy of action. From a conceptual perspective I approached the challenge posed by significant parts of current social psychology, according to which, human behaviour is not controlled by persons, but instead the result of unconscious features of the environment. I argue that this conclusion depends on a misunderstanding of what behavioural self-control is. Investigating the meaning of self-control, I argue that it is not merely a notion of causal control (the one defeated in much social psychology research), but that self-controlled behaviour should largely be understood in normative terms.
For the future, I plan to integrate my ethical and conceptual interests regarding the challenges that current research in the behavioural and neurosciences pose for our daily lives and for our self-understanding as persons.
