The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas (P.S.) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Highly informed account of how our brain forms our beliefs and how we can determine what beliefs serve us best." (Robert Bazell, chief health and science correspondent, NBC News )

"An extraordinary book... lucid, provocative, and deeply interesting. This is important and fascinating." (Kay Redfield Jamison )

"One of the most brilliant experimental neuroscientists in the world... This is a provocative and highly readable book." (Tom Wolfe )

"Wonderfully nourishing food for thought. Gazzaniga tackles some of the toughest ethical issues of our time with vigor, intelligence, insight." (Diane Ackerman )

"The great frontier is the question of how we will deal with one another, this gets us on our way." (Alan Alda )

"writes with verve and expertise about the fascinating issues that will confront us as our knowledge of the brain expands." (Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and How the Mind Works )

Product Description

A provocative and fascinating look at new discoveries about the brain that challenge our ethics

The rapid advance of scientific knowledge has raised ethical dilemmas that humankind has never before had to address. Questions about the moment when life technically begins and ends or about the morality of genetically designing babies are now relevant and timely. Our ever-increasing knowledge of the workings of the human brain can guide us in the formation of new moral principles in the twenty-first century. In The Ethical Brain, preeminent neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga presents the emerging social and ethical issues arising out of modern-day brain science and challenges the way we look at them. Courageous and thought-provoking -- a work of enormous intelligence, insight, and importance -- this book explores the hitherto uncharted landscape where science and society intersect.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060884738
• ISBN-13: 978-0060884734
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #184,040 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A nice literature review at best, and nothing more, June 23, 2009

By	Jonathan Zasloff - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Michael Gazzaniga is one of the most renowned neuroscientists of our time, and rightfully so; his experiments regarding the role of the corpus callosum in connecting left- and right-brain functions really changed the way that we understand the brain. It should come as little surprise, then, that he was eventually rewarded with a seat on the President's Council on Bioethics.

It should also warn potential readers of the fact that a good neuroscientist does not make a very good ethicist -- or indeed, much of an ethicist at all. Each chapter of this book (except the last, about which more below) basically has the same format: there is a well-written survey of the developments in brain science that implicate a particular ethical issue, and then a couple of pages of Gazzaniga's "Perspectives."

But these Perspectives shed virtually no light on any of the issues. If anything, they show how little science can tell us about them. In the essay on "My Brain Made Me Do It," Gazzaniga canvasses the literature on what we can know about mental states from the neuroscience, and then concludes that mental state or guilt for legal purposes is not a scientific question because scientists investigate brains, not minds. True enough; and something that anyone with the most cursory knowledge of the field could have told him beforehand.

Often he just seems to make assumptions about things without making it clear. He favors drugs that enhance our intelligence or cognitive capabilities because you can't stop them and in any event, most people won't use them. But he is outraged at athletes using performance-altering drugs because in some sense that violates the "social contract" that we all accept. The obvious question is why using intelligence-enhancing drugs would not also violate the social contact is completely lost on him. Maybe wealthy families will be able to afford these drugs to do better on the SAT, and thus create a more plutocratic base for college admissions (a problem that's bad enough already). Why isn't that a violation of the social contract? What does he mean by a social contract, anyway? Gazzaniga cannot answer this question because he never asks it.

I was really looking forward to the final chapter, in which Gazzaniga claims to set forth a theory of universal ethics not bound by time or culture. A fascinating and crucial topic -- and one that deserves a whole lot more than he gives it, especially because his evidentiary base is essentially one short journal article, and a quarter-century old book by James Q. Wilson (who is neither a scientist nor an ethicist). There is an awful lot of work that has been done on comparative responses to ethical dilemmas, ways in which cultures differ and don't differ, etc. Gazzaniga never mentions them.

The chief value of this book -- indeed, the ONLY value of this book -- is the review of the neuroscience findings. That is genuinely helpful to someone like me who is not a scientist. But I admit that I began to worry after the last chapter, where I have read a little (just a little) on the issues surrounding the universality of ethics, and found that Gazzaniga didn't seem to be aware of them. Uh oh.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. But that's because I was really looking forward to reading this book. Gazzaniga is a great neuroscientist, and thought he would have something interesting and provocative to say. He just doesn't.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important acquisition for any collection concerned with medical or scientific ethical issues., December 10, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Scientific advancements have led to many ethical quandaries covered elsewhere: THE ETHICAL BRAIN: THE SCIENCE OF OUR MORAL DILEMMAS is something different, surveying the link between increasing knowledge and the formation of new moral principles. It comes from a neuro-scientist who examines emerging social and ethical issues coming from the latest brain research, offering an exploration of interrelated scientific and social issues. From neuroscience in the courtroom affecting legal issues to new perspectives on differences between lab and real-world applications, THE ETHICAL BRAIN is an important acquisition for any collection concerned with medical or scientific ethical issues.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, June 20, 2009

By	John Shores - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book in audio format and listened to it on my iPod twice before I came here and bought the physical book which I have read and highlighted.

This work is extremely well-written, fascinating and indeed timely. For those of us who want more than just feelings or religious pronouncements about the ethical issues facing us, this work provides us with insights into the human mind (not the "psyche" but the actual way that human brains function) that are far more valuable as a foundation for rational arguments for or against said issues. What particularly struck me was the section discussing how new discoveries in neuroscience are likely to dramatically affect legal proceedings that involve eye-witness testimony.

I was also mesmerized by the section on Temporary Lobe Epilepsy and Religious belief.

I think this book is important principally because all too often the discussion of what people "ought to do" has left out the very basic question of "why do we think that this is what we ought to do?" More importantly, previous discussions have left out the important question of "what happens if we find out that our brains are wired in a way that your conclusions about moral ethics are in fact contrary to how we as biological creatures function?" Mr. Gazzaniga's book is not a treatise on Science over Religion so much as it is an introduction of the question of how the brain actually works into the discussion of our moral dilemmas. Without such data being introduced into the discussion, we as a species will continue in the vast world of "opinion" without ever finding real solutions. It is clear that history has shown that 10,000 years of addressing moral and ethical issues based on personal opinion and religious pronouncements has not led to a satisfactory conclusion. Perhaps it is time that we used our brains more effectively.

I have recommended this book to dozens of people and am happy to recommend it to you as well.