The self beyond itself : an alternative history of ethics, the new brain sciences, and the myth of free will / Heidi M. Ravven.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ravven, Heidi M., 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics.

Neurosciences.

Free will and determinism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (527 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : New Press, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Few concepts are more unshakable in Western culture than free will, the idea that people are fundamentally free to make good or bad decisions. Scholar Heidi M. Ravven throws a wrench into this conventional view, calling free will a myth that reflects the still-powerful influence of Christian theology on our popular thinking.The Self Beyond Itself offers a riveting and accessible review of modern neuro-scientific research into the brain's capacity for decision-making?from mirror neurons and self-mapping to surprising new understandings of the dynamics of group psychology. Ul

Contents:

Acknowledgments; 1 Searching for Ethics; 2 Moral Lessons of the Holocaust About Good and Evil, Perpetrators and Rescuers; 3 The Overwhelming Power of the Group and the Situation; 4 What Happened to Ethics:The Augustinian Legacy of Free Will; 5 Another Modernity: The Moral Naturalism of Maimonides and Spinoza; 6 Surveying the Field; 7 Beginning Again; 8 T e Self in Itself; 9 The Self Beyond Itself; 10 What Is Ethics?; Notes; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781595588005

1595588000