by James Beauregard
In the previous blog I considered neuroethics from the perspective of
its world view, which is drawn ultimately from the worldview of the hard
sciences. The metaphysics and epistemology of science, however, cannot
account for the presence and practice of neuroethics. If I am right, and
this is in fact the theoretical foundation of the current worldview of
neuroethics, which is itself a subset of the worldview of neuroscience more
broadly of the regional ontology science, there are further implications, then
all knowledge sought by neuroethics must be sought within the physicalist
paradigm of empiricism. All human activity must then be conceived within
a philosophical anthropology that is physically and biologically determined.
Next, we run into a problem with language; metaphor, the warp and woof of human
communication, cannot exist either.
Communication between human beings becomes
difficult to envisage since it must be described exclusively in terms of
biological processes. At most, an assertion of degree zero rhetoric can be
made, a bare-bones use of language in its most literal and closed. At the
same time, the very assertion of a concept cannot be accounted for in a
strictly held regional ontology of science that is physicalist in nature, an
ontology that has no place for ideas, models, or even the notion of
“notions.” In such a regional ontology, there is no way to account
for or even to recognize our use of metaphor, imagery, abstraction, of models
and images, since these require creativity, choice and ingenuity that cannot be
accounted for in any physicalist or biological paradigm. This leaves us
trapped in a vicious circle in which we cannot account for the fact that we are
accounting for something. If we take this position seriously, then we are
also forced to acknowledge such things as the history of music, attendance at
musical performances, the visual arts conserved displayed so many museums, our
rich histories of literature across cultures, the technologies that pervade our
daily lives, and our very ability to choose to act either straightforwardly
physically determined or are biological and evolutionary necessities.
Finally, there has been a shadow text
operative inwhat I have been writing here. It is that of John Macmurray’s
historical/conceptual Fields, the conceptual architectures that he created to
characterise the history of science and philosophy. As he described it, in the
Field of the Mechanical matter used as its organising concept - universe
composed of matter operating in a cause and effect paradigm. The methodology of
this Field was empirical and mathematical, exemplified by the science of
physics. The Field operates within a cause-and-effect paradigm of matter in
motion and is ultimately impersonal. Historically, the next Field to develop
was the Field of the Organic or biological, a conceptual architecture which
organised our understanding not around matter but around the notion of
biological organisms. Here, human beings are conceptualised as organisms and
biology in all its manifestations superseded physics as the reigning science.
The cause-and-effect paradigm physics gave way to the stimulus- response model
of activity and adaptation to environment, a vision that is also essentially
impersonal in nature, a vision and ultimately reducible to physics.
If we conceive of neuroethics theoretically
within this broad historical paradigm, and it is my argument that this is in
fact what has happened, then to follow this theoretical vision to its logical
conclusion means that neuroethics is not within the realm of possibility.
Matter and organism do not yield ethics of any kind.
The ongoing contradiction: neuroethics
exists, is practiced, has a steadily growing literature, and has had an
important impact on both neuroscientific and healthcare theory and practice.
How are we to account for this? A necessary first step is to recognize that
neuroethics, as it is actually conceived of, theorized about and practiced,
happens outside of the regional ontology of science, and outside of
the strict limitations of degree zero rhetoric, and not in John Macmurray’s two
conceptual fields of the Material and the Organic.[1] It becomes necessary, to bring theory into
alignment with practice and with experience, and this is a task I want to
suggest cannot be done within theoretical limits of neuroethics as it currently
exists.
[1]
Also, the fact that this is
happening outside the Fields of the Mechanical and the Organic
indicates that there is, in fact, an outside, that there is
something going on beyond the disciplinary boundaries of the
regional ontology of science, suggesting that the regional ontology of science
doesn’t capture everything about what is. In this case, that something is
philosophy, an activity of the Field of the Personal.
No comments:
Post a Comment