SCR Reloaded

For those of you interested in consciousness science, the new online journal/e-zine/forum for the scientific study of consciousness, Science & Consciousness Review, is now online.
New features include comments by registered users, databases, an annotated bibliography, RSS feeds and surveys.
Visit SCR here.

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Neurobiology of human values I

Modern brain science has made a big impact on numerous issues, not the least on health care. The invention of psychopharmacological agents was the first break-through in human history in the treatment of psychiatric diseases.
The consequences of neuroscience may, however, be felt most at all in our self-conception, in how we view human nature. A [...]

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More Literary Darwinism

In response to my post on Literary Darwinism, Joseph Carroll has updated his web site, adding not only the Buss chapter I cite, but also several new in press papers. Get ‘em here.

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Literary Darwinism and the brain

The November 6 issue of the New York Times Magazine ran a piece by D.T. Max on a new literary theory called ”Literary Darwinism” (LD). LD is the most prominent part of a larger movement called Biopoetics, dedicated to investigating the evolutionary background of the human capacity for producing and consuming works of art. As [...]

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Rennie gives the pope some directions!

Having mentioned the new blog at Nature.com, it should also be noted that John Rennie, the editor of Scientific American, writes a regular blog worth surfing by from time to time. In the most recent post (dated November 13), as I’m writing this, Rennie scolds the pope’s embarrasing endorsement of Intelligent Design. According to the [...]

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Gazzaethics I

What does a member of the US President’s Council on Bioethics think about the consequences of brain science? How does is knowledge about the brain influencing bioethical decisions? Michael Gazzaniga is a world-renowned neuroscientist and one of the very founders of modern experimental cognitive neuroscience. He is also a member of the Bioethics Council. In [...]

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Are you ready for action?

We are not the only ones starting a serious blog these days. We are being dwarfed by Nature Neuroscience’s (NN) new feature, a blog called Action Potential. And yet, this is very likely one of the resources we will get our material from. A brief look at the blog tells us that it is an [...]

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Ethical Decision-Making. A new Review.

Why are some types of behaviour deemed wrong or good? Much of the philosophical work dedicated to this question has been focused on what could be called its metaphysical dimension: How can we determine if some act is good or bad by necessity, and should therefore be considered good or bad by all people? Recently, [...]

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‘The Ethical Brain’: Mind Over Gray Matter – New York Times

‘The Ethical Brain’: Mind Over Gray Matter – New York Times: “
By SALLY SATEL
New York Times
TOM WOLFE was so taken with Michael S. Gazzaniga’s ”Social Brain” that not only did he send Gazzaniga a note calling it the best book on the brain ever written, he had Charlotte Simmons’s Nobel Prize-winning neuroscience professor recommend [...]

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Blogging the ethics of neuroscience

Finally, there is a blog on neuroethics. And it seems that it is not only a buzzword blog: it is initiated by prof. Adam Kolber from the Un. of San Diego School of Law.
As Kolber writes about this blog; “The Neuroethics and Law Blog is an interdisciplinary forum for legal and ethical issues related [...]

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