NEUROBIOLOGY OF HUMAN AGENCY, NEUROPHILOSOPHY, AND NEUROLAW: COULD NEUROSCIENCE BECOME A COERCIVE FORCE IN THE FUTURE?

The dominance of the scientific method and the worldview it produces dominates all kinds of discourse. This dominance is increasing and continues to displace traditional ways of understanding phenomena. Unfortunately, the well-merited success of the scientific method has resulted in a displacement of many legitimate non-scientific ways of understanding. Since neuroscience is at the very cutting edge of technological endeavors, the ethical issues that arise due to a proliferation of neurotechnology need careful ethical analysis. As neuroscience develops, it continues to colonize other adjacent fields such as psychology and law. The reason is that the spectacular success of the scientific method has resulted in scientism. Uncritical reliance on neuroscience to solve social and moral problems can and will result in neuroscience becoming a tool of social control, coercion, and even totalitarianism. Since the scientific method is heavily reliant on reductionism, it tends to discount the phenomenological aspects of the human condition as they can not be subject to the kind of reduction that a rigorous application of the scientific methods requires. The human self is a product of mysterious phenomena only partially explainable by neuroscience. These mysterious phenomena that generate and perpetuate the human self are consciousness, free will, and memory. Since neuroscience can not explain the first two phenomena at a fundamental level, it is unfit to intervene in the human mind through access to the brain's physical structures. The brain-mind dichotomy remains an unsolved problem in philosophy and science. A reductionist approach to understanding the human condition will result in a scientistic understanding of the self, which degrades human personality and individuality to a mechanistic and robotic existence. Such attempts undermine the dignity of humans and endanger belief in the concept of free will. A logical result will be an overzealous manipulation of human behavior, undermining authenticity and exercise of moral agency. Governments, corporate giants, and other unscrupulous actors are quite likely to misuse neuroscience for morally questionable ends. Therefore, a critical reanalysis of the role and objectives of neuroscience is needed, and adequate checks and balances need to be instituted to protect human dignity and cognitive liberty.

Name thesis:degree_name

Medical Humanities (Doctoral)

Grantor

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Husaini, Syed Habeebullah

• Philosophy
• History of Science
• Law

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2152.3/12682

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utmb-ir.tdl.org:2152.3/12682