The New Brain Sciences: Perils and Prospects

by Edited by Dai Rees , Steven Rose

• ISBN13: 9780521537148
• ISBN10: 0521537142
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The last 20 years have seen an explosion of research and development in the neurosciences. Indeed, some have called this first decade of the 21st century 'the decade of the mind'. An all-encompassing term, the neurosciences cover such fields as biology, psychology, neurology, psychiatry and philosophy and include anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, genetics and behaviour. It is now a major industry with billions of dollars of funding invested from both public and private sectors. Huge progress has been made in our understanding of the brain and its functions. However, with progress comes controversy, responsibility and dilemma. The New Brain Sciences: Perils and Prospects examines the implications of recent discoveries in terms of our sense of individual responsibility and personhood. With contributing chapters from respected and influential names in neuroscience, law, psychology, philosophy and sociology, The New Brain Sciences should kick-start a discussion of where neuroscience is headed.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	viii
Part I Introduction: the new brain sciences	1	(14)
Introduction: the new brain sciences	3	(12)
Steven Rose
Part II Freedom to change	15	(86)
Do we ever really act?	17	(17)
Mary Midgley
The definition of human nature	34	(25)
Merlin W. Donald
Consciousness and the limits of neurobiology	59	(12)
Hilary Rose
Mind metaphors, neurosciences and ethics	71	(17)
Regine Kollek
Genetic and generic determinism: a new threat to free will?	88	(13)
Peter Lipton
Part III Neuroscience and the law	101	(64)
Human action, neuroscience and the law	103	(20)
Alexander McCall Smith
Responsibility and the law	123	(8)
Stephen Sedley
Programmed or licensed to kill? The new biology of femicide	131	(18)
Lorraine Radford
Genes, responsibility and the law	149	(16)
Patrick Bateson
Part IV Stewardship of the new brain sciences	165	(98)
The neurosciences: the danger that we will think that we have understood it all	167	(14)
Yadin Dudai
On dissecting the genetic basis of behaviour and intelligence	181	(14)
Angus Clarke
Prospects and perils of stem cell repair of the central nervous system: a brief guide to current science	195	(18)
Helen Hodges
Iris Reuter
Helen Pilcher
The use of human embryonic stem cells for research: an ethical evaluation	213	(10)
Guido De Wert
The Prozac story	223	(9)
John Cornwell
Psychopharmacology at the interface between the market and the new biology	232	(17)
David Healy
Education in the age of Ritalin	249	(14)
Paul Cooper
Part V Conclusion	263	(2)
Conclusion	265	(11)
Dai Rees
Barbro Westerholm
References	276	(9)
Index	285