Abstract

In "Imaging or Imagining? A Neuroethics Challenge Informed by Genetics," Judy Illes and Eric Racine argue that "traditional bioethics analysis" (TBA) is insufficient to deal with moral and metaphysical challenges endemic to recent developments in neuroscience, apparently because they believe that these developments differ in kind, not merely degree, from previous developments. This article suggests that recent neuroscientific developments do not have any metaphysical implications that pose the sort of challenge with which Illes and Racine are concerned. Illes and Racine's view fails because of two faulty metaphysical assumptions: first, the assumption that the mind is the brain; and second, the assumption that neurotechnology has implications for questions related to personal identity.