It could turn out that our experience of free will is an illusion, just as it could turn out that our experience of the exter-nal world is an illusion—we could be living in a computer simulation like the

o act freely, libertarians believe, your desires must be your own. In other words, you must be self-programming

do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer’s words: “Man can do what he wants, but he cannot want what he wants”

fine what’s moral as whatever your God mandates andsuddenly most people become immora

Instead of showing that free will is an illusion,neuroscience and psychology can actually help us understand howit works

oraland legal responsibility may be closebehind.

Also, it is often suggested that individuals are free tochoose and modify their environment and that, in this respect, theycontrol their destiny

mind—body problem,

r. Yet a basic tenet ofthe judicial system and the way that we govern society is that wehold individuals accountable (we consider them at fault) on theassumption that people can make choices that do not simply reflecta summation of their genetic and environmental history

surely it follows that individuals cannotlogically be held responsible for their behavio

ead trauma to the tendency of violent video games tomake children behave aggressively

rachnoid cysts were associated withviolence

whether it’s an unhappychildhood or an arachnoid cyst or both.

The implications of the claim were considerable. American law holds peoplecriminally responsible unless they act under duress (with a gun pointed atthe head, for example)

an abnormal cys

neuroscience began to transform the American legal system

But what of thedistinction between testimonial and material evidence?

including consid-50erable risk of false-negative and false-positive results.

EG andfMRI techniques need not raise special privacy concernsthat make them any more objectionable than accepted tech-niques such as polygraphs or tissue sampl

electroencephalogra-phy

henyou'retellingthetruth,thisareaisasleep.Butwhenyou'retryingtodeceive,thesignalsareloudandclea

ceptionscans,asifmymindhadtoworkhardertogeneratethefictitiousnarrative.Crucially,theareasofmybrainassociatedwithemotion,conflict,andcognitivecontrol–theamygdala,rostralcingulate,caudate,andthalamus–were"hot"whenIwaslyingbut"cold"whenIwastellingthetru

hatapolygraphactuallymeasuresisthestressoftellingalie,asreflectedinacceleratedheartrate,rapidbreathing,risingbloodpressure,andincreasedsweating.Sociopathswhodon'tfeelguiltandpeoplewholearntoinhibittheirreactionstostresscanslipthroughapolygrapher'snet

cientistsareusingthetechnologytoanalyzethecognitivedifferencesbetweentruthandlies

MRIismakingitpossibleforneurologiststodetectearlysignsofAlzheimer'sdiseaseandotherdisorders,evaluatedrugtreatments,andpinpointtissuehousingcriticalabilitieslikespeechbeforeventuringintoapatient'sbrainwithascalpe

ould planting ‘beneficial’ false memories be the next big thing for tacklingobesity, or myriad other health complaints from fear of the dentist to depressio

lse suggestion ate about 25% less peach yoghurt than the others. The avoidance of peach yoghurt was most pronounced among those people who now said they could ‘remember’ the fictional sickly inciden

memory researchers have known for decades that our recollections of the past are often inaccurate, and that sometimes we remember entire events that never happened at all.

brainwashed you without your consent

uppose, for example, that some well-intentioned person could have deliberately planted a vivid false memory of this fictional event in your consciousness, believing that the memory would change you in ways that would benefit your life

Would it be ethical to implant false memories in therapy?We can implant false memories with increasing ease –and it may well help you to live a healthier, happier life. But what are the ethics?TTake a moment to remember an event that you experienced as a child. Pick something that’s important to you –an event that really shaped for the better the person you are today.

U0126 deletes fearful memories,

ecause of these effects, propranolol is regarded as a memory erasing drug.

Because of these effects, propranolol is regarded as a memory erasing drug

Because of these effects, propranolol is regarded as a memory erasing dru

If seeking happiness is a common dream of all human beings, and if living with painful memories causes unhappiness, then erasing painful memories seems to be an obvious human desire.

ethical questions.

ltimate human desire.

s there a risk that you would forgivehim too easily?

even about keyautobiographical facts – are actually incorrect or evenfalse

he soldier might also holderroneous beliefs about his courage or cruelty, traits thatmight be relevant in a crisis situation.

self-deception wouldbe to change our knowledge of who we are: a soldier whoforgot what he did during a war (or even that he participatedin the war) might face unpleasant surprises upon learningevidence of his past

uch research raises hope for treatingconditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), in which painful memories become intrusiveand damage an individual’s ability to live an ordinarylife.

hen theymade the mice produce an excess of this protein,memories of painful events were completelyeliminated.

CT is now being used to alter and destroy memories.

electroshock therapy

physical pain couldbring her to orgasm

Freud discovered had more to do with psychologicaltrauma than physical illness

“morality pill”

Undoubtedly, situational factors can make a huge difference, andperhaps moral beliefs do as well, but if humans are just different intheir predispositions to act morally, we also need to know moreabout these differences

seminary students on their way to give a lectureabout the parable of the Good Samaritan would, if told that theywere running late, walk past a stranger lying moaning beside thepath.

Why are some people prepared to risk their lives to help a strangerwhen others won’t even stop to dial an emergency number?

ast October, in Foshan, China, a 2-year-old girl was run over by avan. The driver did not stop. Over the next seven minutes, morethan a dozen people walked or bicycled past the injured child. Asecond truck ran over her

ocial skills

The power to modify brains and the resulting mentalstates and behavior obviously has enormous ethical, legal,and policy implications

umerous studies haveindicated that a wide array of cognitive and behavioralphenomena can be affected by such interventions, frommemory to mood to morality

free coffee in the break room to the more

Sure, you’ve got the talent for this, but we require you to take Adderall.

were more likely to use the drugs as study aids and bring along those habits as they moved up the ladder

dozen of their colleagues had admitted to regular use of prescription drugs like Adderall, a stimulant, and Provigil, which promoteswakefulness, to improve their academic performance.

ra of doping may be looming in academia

At present we don't know enough about the connections between intelligence and personality to know how serious a risk that is but I think it's a risk worth considering

Last week I spoke with Buchanan at length about the ethics of deep brain stimulation, the history of cognitive enhancement, and what a world of cognitively enhanced human beings might look lik

DCS has now reached a critical stage where its risks must be carefully considered before the research goes further

Using technology to enhance our brains sounds terrifying, but using tools to make ourselves smarter may be part of humans' nature

.1.3. Ethics

hirdly, we briefly review the ethical issues associated withcurrent neuroscience technologies.

In fact, until forty days after conception, the fertilized egg is considered as “mere fluid.” These facts form the basis for the Jewish legal view on abortion

Coma, PVS and anencephaly

ccording to philosopher Mary Anne Warren (1973), "the traits which are most central to the concept of personhood . . . are, very roughly, the following: 1. consciousness . . . and in particular the capacity to feel pain; 2. reasoning (the developedcapacity to solve new and relatively complex problems); 3. self-motivated activity (activity which is relatively independent of either genetic or direct external control); 4. the capacity to communicate, by whatever means, messages of an indefinite variety of types . . . ; 5. the presence of self-concepts, and self-awareness. . . .

To be classified as a "person" normally entails having strong moral rights and legal protections, and higher moral status than living things that cannot credibly be classified as persons.

t’s difficult to imagine our selves as disconnected from the particular bodies we have

We take for granted the intimate connection between our minds and bodies.

This has led the experts to conclude that althoughnon-human, dolphins and whales are "people" in aphilosophical sense, which has far-reachingimplicatio

It is based on years of research that has showndolphins and whales have large, complex brains anda human-like level of self-awareness

Experts in philosophy, conservation and animal behaviour want support for a Declaration ofRights for Cetaceans.They believe dolphins and whales are sufficiently intelligent to justify the same ethicalconsiderations as humans.

fense.Is it wrong to kill som eoneto puthim out of his m

Th ou shaltnot ki

. Good peopleus uallyperformrightactions,bu t it doesn’talwaysturn out th at

We usuallyjustifyour acti ons by appealing to var ious mo ral pr in ciples,such as: it’s wrongto steal,it’s wrongto li e, it ’s wrong to br eak pr omises, andthe lik

t wa s an act o

id Lest er Zygmanikdo the rightthing?

On the other hand, surgery and general anesthesia carry some smalldegree of risk to an otherwise healthy patient, and we are under anobligation "not to harm" the patient.

Our medical goal should be toprovide the greatest benefit to the patient,

pluralistic

Deductive

Therefore,every rave n that ever wil

Everybody does it, so I sho uld be allow ed t

ere may be sever a

be anyth ing but logical . In phil osophy ,the term “argument”is rese rved for those claims in which ther e is suppo sedlya logical relationbetwe en the premisesand the co nclus

Whatmakesapersongoodorbad?

Canweacquireknowledgeoftheexternalworld?

Whatisaperson?

right

o we have a soul that will survive the death of our bodies, or will we cease to exist when our bodies die?