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Pharmacological Enhancement of Cognition Pharmacological Enhancement of Mood and Related Functions Brain-Machine Interfaces and Nonpharmacological Enhancement Responsibility and Brain Function PENN NEUROETHICS PROGRAM |
Brains, Minds and Souls Most people are Cartesian dualists: they believe that body and mind are distinct. Until recently, neuroscience did not pose a strong challenge to this view. Revealing the neural mechanisms of color vision puts color vision in the realm of the body, as opposed to the mind, but so what? You can still believe in what Arthur Koestler called “the ghost in the machine” and simply conclude that color vision is carried out by the machine for the benefit of the ghost. However, as neuroscience begins to reveal the mechanisms of personality, character, and even sense of spirituality, dualism becomes strained. If these are all features of the machine, why have a ghost at all? By raising questions like this, it seems likely that neuroscience is destined to challenge one of the central tenets of practially all religions: the existence of an immortal soul. Compared to the challenge posed by the theory of evolution, which is confied to beliefs about the origin of humanity, the physicalist world view of neuroscience present an even more fundamental challenge. Martha J. Farah Bloom, P. (2005). Is God an Accident? The Atlantic Monthly, 296 (5): 105-112. "Can Science Seek the Soul?" (2000). "Closer to Truth" (transcript of PBS television series). Dawkins, R. and Pinker, S. "Is science killing the soul?". The Guardian-Dillons debate series. Flanagan, Owen. (2003). The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them. Basic Books. Hamer, D. (2004). The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired Into Our Genes. Doubleday. |