The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas

Michael S. Gazzaniga

HarperCollins, May 9, 2006 - Science - 240 pages

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.

What people are saying

Review: The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas

User Review  - Kent Winward - Goodreads

After having read Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, Gazzinga's clarity and prose was a nice contrast to Nagel's philosophical jargon ...

Review: The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas

User Review  - Kaitlin - Goodreads

It took me over a month to finish this book. Scratch that. I started this book a month ago and finally talked myself into picking it back up again yesterday. That said, it really isn't a bad book. The ...

About the author

Michael S. Gazzaniga is the director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the president of the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, the founding director of the MacArthur Foundation's Law and Neuroscience Project, and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences. He lives in California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas
• Author: Michael S. Gazzaniga
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: HarperCollins, 2006
• ISBN: 0060884738, 9780060884734
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Science / General