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Neuroscience May Supersede Ethics and Law

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Abstract

Advances in technology now make it possible to monitor the activity of the human brain in action, however crudely. As this emerging science continues to offer correlations between neural activity and mental functions, mind and brain may eventually prove to be one. If so, such a full comprehension of the electrochemical bases of mind may render current concepts of ethics, law, and even free will irrelevant.

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Notes

  1. A related tactic was successfully plied in the famous “Twinkie defense” through which Dan White was convicted only of manslaughter of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, rather than of their premeditated murders in 1978. The hyperglycemic result of White’s Twinkie consumption was not presented as the cause of his criminal act, but rather as a symptom of the depression that convinced a jury that he was incapable of planning and executing the murders.

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  1. San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA

    Thomas R. Scott

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  1. Thomas R. Scott
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Correspondence to Thomas R. Scott.

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Scott, T.R. Neuroscience May Supersede Ethics and Law. Sci Eng Ethics 18, 433–437 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-012-9351-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-012-9351-1

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