Pragmatism and the Contribution of Neuroscience to Ethics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v21i1.13Keywords:
Dewy, moral philosophy, nueroscience, anti-naturalists, pragmatismAbstract
Neuroscience has been described as a revolutionary force that will transform our understanding of common morality and of ethics as a discipline. To such strong naturalistic claims, critiques have responded with an arsenal of antinaturalistic arguments, often negating any contribution of neuroscience. In this paper, I review the terms of the debate between strong naturalists and anti-naturalists and offer a moderate (pragmatic) naturalistic approach as a constructive middle-ground position. Inspired by Dewey’s moral philosophy, I offer an alternate account of how neuroscience broadens our understanding of ethics and moral situations and thus supports a deliberative and iterative process of wisdom-generation.
References
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Racine, E. (under review) “Pragmatic neuroethics: A reflection on the social nature of ethics in the context of disorders of consciousness,” in Handbook of Clinical Neurology: Ethical and Legal Issues in Neurology, ed. B. A. Beresford (Amsterdam: Elsevier)
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Roskies, A. 2002. “Neuroethics for the new millenium,” Neuron 35: 21–23.
Smith, R. 2001. “Representations of mind: C.S. Sherrington and scientific opinion, c. 1930– 1950,” Science in Context 14(4): 511–529.
Solomon, M. Z. 2005. “Realizing bioethics’ goals in practice: ten ways ‘is’ can help ‘ought,’” Hastings Center Report 35(4): 40–47.
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Borry, P., Schotsmans, P. and Dierickx, K. 2005. “The Birth of the Empirical Turn in Bioethics,” Bioethics 19(1): 49–71.
Callahan, D. 1996. “Can Nature Serve as a Moral Guide?” Hastings Center Report 26(6): 21– 22.
Casebeer, W. D. 2003. “Moral Cognition and its Neural Constituents,” Nature Neuroscience 4: 841–846.
Changeux, J.-P. 1981. “Les progrès des sciences du système nerveux concernent-ils les philosophes?” Bulletin de la Société française de Philosophie 75: 73–105.
Changeux, J.-P. 1996. “Le point de vue d’un neurobiologiste sur les fondements de l’éthique,” in Cerveau et psychisme humains: quelle éthique? ed. G. Huber (Paris: John Libbey Eurotext).
Churchland, P. S. 2002. “Neuroconscience,” in Neuroethics: Mapping the Field, ed. S. J. Marcus (San Francisco, Cal.: The Dana Press), pp. 20–26.
Damasio, A. R. 1999. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. San Diego, Cal.: Harvest Book Harcourt.
Dewey, J. 1922. Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology. New York: Henry Holt.
Dewey, J. and Tufts, J. H. 1932. Ethics. New York: Henry Holt.
Editorial. 1998. “Does Neuroscience Threaten Human Values?” Nature Neuroscience 1(7): 535–536.
Engelhardt, T. J. 1977. “Splitting the brain, dividing the soul, being of two minds: An editorial concerning mind-body quandaries in medicine,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 2(2): 89– 100.
Farah, M. J., Illes, J., Cook-Deegan, R., Gardner, H., Kandel, E., King, P., Parens, E., Sahakian, B. and Wolpe, P. R. 2004. “Neurocognitive enhancement: what can we do and what should we do?” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5(5): 421–425.
Gazzaniga, M. S. 2005. The Ethical Brain. New York and Washington, D.C.: Dana Press.
Greene, J. D. 2003. “From neural ‘is’ to moral ‘ought’: What are the moral implications of neuroscientific moral psychology?” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4: 847–850.
Hagner, M. 2001. “Cultivating the cortex in German neuroanatomy,” Science in Context 14(9): 4, 541–563.
Huber, G., ed. 1996. Cerveau et psychisme humains: quelle éthique? Paris: John Libbey Eurotext.
Macintyre, A. 1998. “What can moral philosophers learn from the study of the brain?” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58(4): 865–869.
Mccabe, D. P. and Castel, A. D. 2008. “Seeing is believing: the effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning,” Cognition 107(1): 343–52.
Moreno, J. 1999. “Bioethics is a naturalism,” in Pragmatic Bioethics, ed. G. Mcgee (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press).
Morse. 2006. “Brain overclaim syndrome and criminal responsibility: A diagnostic note,” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 3: 397–412.
Racine, E. 2005. “Pourquoi et comment doit-on tenir compte des neurosciences en éthique? Esquisse d’une approche neurophilosophique émergentiste et interdisciplinaire,” Laval théologique et philosophique 61(1): 77–105.
Racine, E. 2008. “Which naturalism for bioethics? A defense of moderate (pragmatic) naturalism,” Bioethics 22(2): 92–100.
Racine, E. 2010. Pragmatic Neuroethics: Improving Treatment and Understanding of the Mind-Brain. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Racine, E. (under review) “Pragmatic neuroethics: A reflection on the social nature of ethics in the context of disorders of consciousness,” in Handbook of Clinical Neurology: Ethical and Legal Issues in Neurology, ed. B. A. Beresford (Amsterdam: Elsevier)
Racine, E., Bar-Ilan, O. and Illes, J. 2005. “fMRI in the public eye,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6(2): 159–164.
Racine, E., Waldman, S., Rosenberg, J. and Illes, J. 2010. “Contemporary neuroscience in the media,” Social Science and Medicine 71(4): 725–733.
Roskies, A. 2002. “Neuroethics for the new millenium,” Neuron 35: 21–23.
Smith, R. 2001. “Representations of mind: C.S. Sherrington and scientific opinion, c. 1930– 1950,” Science in Context 14(4): 511–529.
Solomon, M. Z. 2005. “Realizing bioethics’ goals in practice: ten ways ‘is’ can help ‘ought,’” Hastings Center Report 35(4): 40–47.
Stent, G. S. 1990. “The poverty of neurophilosophy,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 15(5): 539–557.
Weisberg, D. S., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E. and Gray, J. R. 2008. “The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 20(3): 470–477.
Wolpe, P. R. 2002. “The neuroscience revolution,” Hastings Center Report 32(4): 8.
Published
2014-07-21
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Racine, E. (2014). Pragmatism and the Contribution of Neuroscience to Ethics. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, 21(1), 13-30. https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v21i1.13
