Neuroethics: Demonstration And Exploration

Neuroethics, proposed in 2002, approaches the issues of traditional ethics with the research production and experimental methods of cognitive neurology, It has blazed a new path in naturalist ethics with demonstrating and challenging the problems in tradionary ethics.From the beginning, it aroused the interest of scholars and specialists in related fields. Articles, journals, seminars and intuitions have mushroomed up recently.The thesis studies the various aspect of ranging from moral judgment, moral principles, free will, normative ethics, as well as meta-ethics.The Neuroethical approach on moral judgment does not support the prevalent status of rationalism in traditional ethics. Its result favors the viewpoint of Hume, which regards emotion, as an indispensable element in moral judgments including fairness, is realized by activating the corresponding rigions of human brain. It is impossible to achieve moral judgment and behavior without emotion. Nevertheless, Neuroethics does not deny the role of rationalism in moral judgment, but only recover the status of emotion it deserves.On moral principles, The thesis, starting from Darwin's study, demonstrates the forming process starting from animal sociality, human sociality to human conscience, and argues that the formation of moral principles can't be separated with the organism through evolution, that highly developed cognitive and empathic ability of human is the crucial condition for moral shaping. It discusses the possibility of human altruism through the perspective of group natural selection with a case study of economics, and points out that the formation of moral principles needs the edification of culture.Free will, as the premise of moral and duty, has triggered controversy owing to the development of natural science, while the development of cognitive neurology has intensified the discussion on the existence of free will. The researches on free will, started by Libet and further developed by others, reach an open conclusion:Free will is a human illusion. The thesis probes into the biological and psychological origin of this illusion and reasons why human needs the illusion by the view of intensifying human adaptation.Neuroethics, besides supporting Hmue in traditional ethics study by demonstration, finds the theory of virtue has won most approval in cognitive neurology, with utilitarianism the next and deontology the least. Simultaneously, Neuroethics challenges egoism and altruism, free will, the idealism and divinity of moral principles.Nationalistic fallacy has always hindered the route of naturalism of ethics. If we can properly define "fact" and uphold survival or better survival as the tenet of ethics based on the achievement of cognitive neurology, we may provide some support for quasi-realism of moral and the issue of fact and value. The thesis plans an attempt at this issue.