Is Rewiring Your Brain The Answer To Ethics?
Ignoring developments in neuroscience means ignoring an opportunity to improve ethical behaviour.
Physiologically, our brains are the legacy of ancient times, when survival was paramount, and acting before thinking was necessary. We have the brains of ancient cave dwellers still inside us. Even with all our disputes, follies, and tribal differences, what we are is what brought us here, and we may indeed still destroy ourselves. This raises the sobering question: Could a re-engineered human brain perform better?
In this article, I argue that ignoring developments in neuroscience means ignoring an opportunity to improve ethical behaviour.
What does research into the brain tell us about the origins of ethics?
In the struggle between cultures, ethical codes have evolved through the interaction between brain and culture, and no major world religion has ever prospered by tolerating its rivals. Even when two armies blessed by priests clash, one army still loses.
In Darwinian terms, the urges of the individual are sin while those of the group are virtue. However, we need both to survive, and evolution has endowed us with an intelligence high enough to judge and…
