The Neuroscience of Fair Play
"Fair play." It fascinates me that each of those words is nearly incomprehensible without the other. Here's a book at the intersection of neuroscience and ethics which explains why: Donald W. Pfaff's The Neuroscience of Fair Play.
I want to, but won't quote all of Edward O. Wilson's "Forward" to the book. Here's a short two-paragraph excerpt of the "Forward" worth passing on, however:
The brain, a supremely complex system of interacting nerve cells, hormones, transmitters, and growing cells, creates processes that variously reinforce or cancel one another out according to context. To understand the way the brain works to create the conscious mind and all the subterranean forces driving it is the how explanation. It identifies the "proximate" causes of mental activity. But scientists also need to learn why the brain works in such and such a way and not some other. They search for "ultimate" causes by deducing the evolution of the brain action. Among the key questions to be answered are those posed in The Neuroscience of Fair Play: why are people at times selfish and aggressive, yet in other circumstances altruistic, sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice--and moreover to complete strangers.
The Neuroscience of Fair Play establishes more persuasively than any previous book the cause-and-effect linkages between biology, psychology, and the humanities. It is on the one hand a superb introduction to neuroscience in the service of moral philosophy; on the other, in reverse, it shows how interest in the innate traits of human nature have stimulated and guided some of the key recent advances in neuroscience.
Ethics may be a hardwired function of the human brain that has been selected and has ensured our survival!
(By the way, Frans de Waal's work in primatology shows how "morality" has evolved in other species and lead to their own evolutionary success: see his Primates and Philosophers.)
I want to, but won't quote all of Edward O. Wilson's "Forward" to the book. Here's a short two-paragraph excerpt of the "Forward" worth passing on, however:
The brain, a supremely complex system of interacting nerve cells, hormones, transmitters, and growing cells, creates processes that variously reinforce or cancel one another out according to context. To understand the way the brain works to create the conscious mind and all the subterranean forces driving it is the how explanation. It identifies the "proximate" causes of mental activity. But scientists also need to learn why the brain works in such and such a way and not some other. They search for "ultimate" causes by deducing the evolution of the brain action. Among the key questions to be answered are those posed in The Neuroscience of Fair Play: why are people at times selfish and aggressive, yet in other circumstances altruistic, sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice--and moreover to complete strangers.
The Neuroscience of Fair Play establishes more persuasively than any previous book the cause-and-effect linkages between biology, psychology, and the humanities. It is on the one hand a superb introduction to neuroscience in the service of moral philosophy; on the other, in reverse, it shows how interest in the innate traits of human nature have stimulated and guided some of the key recent advances in neuroscience.
Ethics may be a hardwired function of the human brain that has been selected and has ensured our survival!
(By the way, Frans de Waal's work in primatology shows how "morality" has evolved in other species and lead to their own evolutionary success: see his Primates and Philosophers.)
Tags: brain, ethics, fair_play, neuroscience
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on
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Hi Skip,
I'm ordering both both books you list here. Can't wait! Thanks!
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