Brain, Body, and Mind: Neuroethics with a Human Face

✍ Scribed by Walter Glannon

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 287
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book is a discussion of the most timely and contentious issues in the two branches of neuroethics: the neuroscience of ethics; and the ethics of neuroscience. Drawing upon recent work in psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery, it develops a phenomenologically inspired theory of neuroscience to explain the brain-mind relation. The idea that the mind is shaped not just by the brain but also by the body and how the human subject interacts with the environment has significant implications for free will, moral responsibility, and moral justification of actions. It also provides a better understanding of how different interventions in the brain can benefit or harm us. In addition, the book discusses brain imaging techniques to diagnose altered states of consciousness, deep-brain stimulation to treat neuropsychiatric disorders, and restorative neurosurgery for neurodegenerative diseases. It examines the medical and ethical trade-offs of these interventions in the brain when they produce both positive and negative physical and psychological effects, and how these trade-offs shape decisions by physicians and patients about whether to provide and undergo them.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 2
Copyright......Page 3
Dedication......Page 4
Acknowledgments......Page 5
Contents......Page 7
Introduction......Page 8
1 Our Brains Are not Us......Page 16
Embodied Minds......Page 17
Embedded Minds......Page 24
Environmental Interventions......Page 33
The Blessing and Burden of Biological Psychiatry......Page 38
Brain, Behavior, and Knowledge......Page 41
Conclusion......Page 44
2 Neuroscience, Free Will, and Moral Responsibility......Page 46
Free Will as an Illusion......Page 47
Defusing the Threat......Page 51
Reasons-Responsiveness and Moral Responsibility......Page 63
Psychopathy I......Page 65
Conclusion......Page 75
3 What Neuroscience Can (and Cannot) Tell Us about Criminal Responsibility......Page 78
Criminal Intent......Page 79
Violent Impulses......Page 83
Psychopathy II......Page 88
Criminal Negligence......Page 95
Conclusion......Page 97
4 Neuroscience and Moral Reasoning......Page 100
Trolleys......Page 101
The Dual-Process Hypothesis......Page 103
The Neurobiological Basis of Moral Judgment......Page 106
Methodological Limitations......Page 116
Conclusion......Page 121
5 Cognitive Enhancement......Page 123
Smarter than Smart......Page 125
Keeping One’s Cool......Page 138
Long-Term Memory......Page 142
Therapeutic Forgetting......Page 147
Authenticity and Alienation......Page 150
Conclusion......Page 153
6 Brain Injury and Survival......Page 155
Two Distinctions......Page 156
Profound Amnesia: H. M. and Clive Wearing......Page 159
Chronic Disorders of Consciousness......Page 164
Evaluating Survival......Page 172
Why Consciousness Might Not Always Be Good......Page 174
Conclusion......Page 182
7 Stimulating Brains, Altering Minds......Page 184
Neurological Disorders: Parkinson’s Disease......Page 186
Psychiatric Disorders: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder......Page 195
Psychiatric Disorders: Major Depressive Disorder......Page 203
Neurological Disorders: The Minimally Conscious State......Page 208
Conclusion......Page 211
8 Regenerating the Brain......Page 213
Regenerative Neural Therapies......Page 215
Safety and Efficacy......Page 217
A Body–Brain Problem......Page 223
Intergenerational Problems......Page 228
Psychological Possibilities......Page 230
Conclusion......Page 235
References......Page 237
Index......Page 259