Consciousness and Morality: Recent Research Developments






 * "If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing." (Benjamin Franklin; American scientist, inventor statesman, printer, philosopher; 1706–1790.)

Purpose of this Page
This page provides support for the following book:


 * Sylwester, R. and Moursund, D. (eds). 2013. Consciousness and morality: Recent research developments. Eugene, OR: Information Age Education. Retrieve the PDF file from http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/251-consciousness-and-morality-recent-research-developments.html and the Microsoft Word file from http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/250-consciousness-and-morality-recent-research-developments.html.

Here is a short description of the book:


 * Morality is a human issue because we're a social species. Researchers thus wondered if morality emerged when social mammals discovered the values of cooperative behavior, or sometime after humans arrived. Two widely held historic beliefs are that moral behavior:


 * 1. Is inspired by deities, and/or
 * 2. Requires the rational level of mind that only humans have.


 * Chapters 1-4 synthesize recent biological conscious research and chapters 5-6 biological morality research. Chapter 7 presents the alternate historical philosophical and theological perspective of consciousness and morality. The scholars whose work is synthesized don't necessarily agree with each other, but that's all right. Collegial disagreements tend to move a field forward.

Article by Sally Satel
Here is a quote from the first part of "Distinguishing Brain From Mind" by Sally Satel (2013):


 * From the recent announcement of President Obama's BRAIN Initiative to the Technicolor brain scans ("This is your brain on God/love/envy etc") on magazine covers all around,   neuroscience has captured the public imagination like never before.


 * Understanding the brain is of course essential to developing treatments for devastating illnesses like schizophrenia and Parkinson's. More abstract but no less compelling, the functioning of the brain is intimately tied to our sense of self, our identity, our memories   and aspirations. But the excitement to explore the brain has spawned a new fixation that my colleague Scott Lilienfeld and I call neurocentrism -- the view    that human behavior can be best explained by looking solely or primarily at the brain.

Note from Robert Sylwester 6/4/2013:

The online version of Atlantic Monthly has an article whose link + commentary should probably be inserted at the end of my comments on free will in the book on Consciousness and Morality (chapter 2)

The final section of chapter 2 + my proposed comments will read:

Legal and Educational Challenges Eagleman does an excellent job of explaining the issues confronting the criminal justice system as science is coming to grips with the reality that many criminal behaviors are more complex and biologically driven than previously believed. Our supposed free-will brain isn’t the only player in determining our identity. It partners with our endocrine and immune systems, and the three are inseparable from the chemical systems (from nutrition to air pollution) that influence our development and behavior. Toss in the effect of our complex social system on identity and it becomes problematic just which part of our personal community is the principal perpetrator who should go to jail.

Eagleman doesn’t suggest that we simply forgive criminal behavior, but rather that society should begin the torturous path of trying to connect culpability to neuroplasticity, societal response to biological reality. The goal, for example, should be to place young offenders with still maturing frontal lobes into an effective residential school that will focus on developing self-control, and to place those with frontal lobe or other damage that precludes social restoration into a humane setting that will also protect society from them. Costs and recidivism would eventually decrease, and social satisfaction would increase as punishment becomes only a part of the societal resolution, rather than most of it.

Schools (and possibly religious organizations) would play an important support role in reconceptualizing the criminal justice system, since it requires a society that understands our brain and its support systems and a willingness to question existing a priori assumptions.

Human biology and cognition must thus become embedded into the entire K-12 curriculum, so that students truly understand our social body/brain by the time they become voters. We now see political and marketing strategies succeed with deceptive and dishonest allegations. It’s because of our low collective understanding of the underlying neurobiology of decision, behavior, and probability. The era in which our understanding of our brain and cognition was somewhat speculative is over. It’s thus time to get serious about helping students develop the ability to understand their own unconscious/conscious brain, and how to assess the credibility of allegations—to know and properly respond when they’re being manipulated.

What follows is a short paragraph that we might add at the end of this this section of the chapter:

In a recent Atlantic Monthly article (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/distinguishing-brain-from-mind/276380/), psychiatrist Sally Satel both agrees and disagrees with this chapter's basically neuroscience perspective on free will. Since her opinion resonates with that held by others, we would encourage you to read her article and to contemplate the complex social ramifications of this puzzling mystery.

Author
This Website was created by David Moursund.