Ethical issues in moral and social enhancement

7.5.2. Separating thought from action and the appropriate engagement with 
reasons 
Savulescu and Persson agree with the spirit of Frankfurt’s conclusion about the 
implications of overdetermination cases and claim that ‘[f]reedom of will or action 
is not indispensable for moral responsibility. So Harris’s “freedom to fall” is not 
essential for moral choice and action’ (Savulescu and Persson, 2012b, p. 115). 
Harris responds by arguing that moral responsibility cannot be separated from the 
actions one is responsible for: 
‘Agents are quintessentially actors; to be an agent is to be 
capable of action. Without agency, in this sense, decision 
making is, as I claimed and argue now, both morally and 
indeed practically barren—literally without issue! Decisions 
to no effect are pointless from the moral perspective; for 
what is a good state of mind worth, if it makes no difference 
to the world? At best Savulescu and Perrson can say, 
“Harris’s ‘freedom to fall’ is not essential for moral choice.” 
They cannot say, as they do, that “Harris’s ‘freedom to fall’ 
is not essential for moral choice 
and action
.’ (2014a, p. 249) 
I have argued that the way we arrive at moral action 
A
is crucially important for our 
moral life and freedom. This importance is preserved even in the presence of 
foreknowledge about what action is going to be performed. To illustrate this point 
further consider the Rational Persuader Machine:
The Rational Persuader Machine. 
The Great Moral Project 
was re-started in 2065. The most powerful, self-learning, self-
developing bioquantum computer ever constructed called the 
God Machine has been improved. After societies became 
concerned about ‘thought control’, the Rational Persuader 
Machine was developed. The Rational Persuader Machine 
would monitor the thoughts, beliefs, desires and intentions of 
every human being. However, instead of modifying these 

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directly, it creates the circumstances under which a person who 
formed an intention to commit a grossly immoral act would 
change their minds of their own accord.