Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st Century

by Neil Levy

• ISBN13: 9780521867825
• ISBN10: 0521867827
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-08-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Neuroscience has dramatically increased understanding of how mental states and processes are realized by the brain, thus opening doors for treating the multitude of ways in which minds become dysfunctional. This book explores questions such as when is it permissible to alter a person's memories, influence personality traits or read minds? What can neuroscience tell us about free will, self-control, self-deception and the foundations of morality? The view of neuroethics offered here argues that many of our new powers to read ,alter and control minds are not entirely unparalleled with older ones. They have, however, expanded to include almost all our social, political and ethical decisions. Written primarily for graduate students, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the more philosophical and ethical aspects of the neurosciences.

Author Biography

Neil Levy is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne, Australia

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 1
What is neuroethics?	p. 1
Neuroethics: some case studies	p. 3
The mind and the brain	p. 8
Peering into the mind	p. 17
The extended mind	p. 29
The debate over the extended mind	p. 44
Changing our minds	p. 69
Authenticity	p. 73
Self-knowledge and personal growth	p. 76
Mechanization of the self	p. 78
Treating symptoms and not causes	p. 81
The presumption against direct manipulation	p. 88
The treatment/enhancement distinction	p. 88
Enhancements as cheating	p. 89
Inequality	p. 91
Probing the distinction	p. 94
Assessing the criticisms	p. 103
Conclusion	p. 129
Reading minds/controlling minds	p. 133
Mind reading and mind controlling	p. 133
Mind control	p. 145
Mind reading, mind controlling and the parity principle	p. 147
Conclusion	p. 154
The neuroethics of memory	p. 157
Total recall	p. 159
Memory manipulation	p. 171
Moderating traumatic memories	p. 182
Moral judgment and the somatic marker hypothesis	p. 187
Conclusion	p. 195
The "self" of self-control	p. 197
The development of self-control	p. 203
Ego-depletion and self-control	p. 206
Successful resistance	p. 215
Addiction and responsibility	p. 219
The neuroscience of free will	p. 222
Consciousness and freedom	p. 225
Who decides when I decided?	p. 226
Consciousness and moral responsibility	p. 231
Moral responsibility without the decision constraint	p. 239
Lessons from neuroscience	p. 243
Neuroscience and the cognitive test	p. 246
Neuroscience and the volitional test	p. 250
Self-deception: the normal and the pathological	p. 258
Theories of self-deception	p. 259
Anosognosia and self-deception	p. 263
Anosognosia as self-deception	p. 276
Conclusion: illuminating the mind	p. 278
The neuroscience of ethics	p. 281
Ethics and intuitions	p. 282
The neuroscientific challenge to morality	p. 288
Responding to the deflationary challenge	p. 293
Moral constructivism	p. 300
Moral dumbfounding and distributed cognition	p. 307
Distributed cognition: extending the moral mind	p. 308
References	p. 317
Index	p. 337
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