Localizing the Moral Sense (eBook)
XX, 292 Seiten
Springer Netherlands (Verlag)
978-1-4020-6322-0 (ISBN)
Due to the current revolution in brain research the search for the 'moral brain' became a serious endeavour. Nowadays, neural circuits that are indispensable for moral and social behaviour are discovered and the brains of psychopaths and criminals - the classical anti-heroes of morality - are scanned with curiosity, even enthusiasm.
How revolutionary this current research might be, the quest for a localisable ethical centre or moral organ is far from new. The moral brain was a recurrent theme in the works of neuroscientists during the 19th and 20th century. From the phrenology era to the encephalitis pandemic in the 1920s a wide range of European and American scientists (neurologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists and criminologists) speculated about and discussed the location of a moral sense in the human cortex. Encouraged by medical discoveries and concerned by terrifying phenomena like crime or 'moral insanity' (psychopathy) even renowned and outstanding neurologists, including Moritz Benedikt, Paul Flechsig, Arthur Van Gehuchten, Oskar Vogt or Constantin von Monakow, had the nerve to make their speculations public. This book presents the first overview of believers and disbelievers in a cerebral seat of human morality, their positions and arguments and offers an explanation for these historical attempts to localise our moral sense, in spite of the massive disapproving commentary launched by colleagues.
Due to the current revolution in brain research the search for the "e;moral brain"e; became a serious endeavour. Nowadays, neural circuits that are indispensable for moral and social behaviour are discovered and the brains of psychopaths and criminals - the classical anti-heroes of morality - are scanned with curiosity, even enthusiasm.How revolutionary this current research might be, the quest for a localisable ethical centre or moral organ is far from new. The moral brain was a recurrent theme in the works of neuroscientists during the 19th and 20th century. From the phrenology era to the encephalitis pandemic in the 1920s a wide range of European and American scientists (neurologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists and criminologists) speculated about and discussed the location of a moral sense in the human cortex. Encouraged by medical discoveries and concerned by terrifying phenomena like crime or "e;moral insanity"e; (psychopathy) even renowned and outstanding neurologists, including Moritz Benedikt, Paul Flechsig, Arthur Van Gehuchten, Oskar Vogt or Constantin von Monakow, had the nerve to make their speculations public. This book presents the first overview of believers and disbelievers in a cerebral seat of human morality, their positions and arguments and offers an explanation for these historical attempts to localise our moral sense, in spite of the massive disapproving commentary launched by colleagues.
Acknowledgments 4
Introduction 8
Science Fiction 8
On the Amphitheatres Marble 10
The Moral Brain Today 11
Outline of the Book 13
1 The New Shapes of the Old Conscience 18
Conscientia, Syneidesis, Synderesis 18
The Philosophical Assault on Conscience 21
Conscience as Moral Sense 23
Conscience as Moral Faculty 26
Moral Sense and Moral Faculty in France 28
Conscience as Instinct 30
The Influence of Darwin and Spencer 32
French Positivism and Naturalism 35
Conscience During the fin de sicle 38
The New Instinct Theory in England and America 41
The End of Physical Metaphors? 43
2 Conscientiousness or the Moral Organ in Phrenology 45
Dieu et cerveau, rien que Dieu et cerveau 46
Phrenological Societies 48
The Criminal Antihero 8
The Moral Organ 10
Flix Voisin 11
Phrenology as Occultism 13
The German Alternative 65
3 The Experimental Neurology of the Moral Centre 70
The New Localisation Doctrine from the 1860s Onwards 70
A Physiological Explanation of Will Power 72
The Flourishing of the Experimental Tradition in Germany 76
Eduard Hitzig 76
David Ferrier 79
Friedrich Goltz 83
Leonardo Bianchi 86
The Dissection of Morality 87
Brocas Thermometer 88
Lombrosos Letter 89
Mossos Longing to Penetrate the Inner Life of Nerve Cells 90
The Galvanic Dream of Fleischl von Marxov 93
4 The Clinical Neurology of the Moral Centre 97
Acquired Moral Insanity 97
Traumas 97
Tumours 100
Paul Schusters Magisterial Review 103
Welts Daring Localisation 105
Abuse of Healthy Progress 108
The Hypothesis of a Cortical Centre of the Moral Sense 110
William Brownings Localisation 112
Penetrating Traumas of the Frontal Lobes 116
Morally Insane Great War Veterans 118
German Exceptions 121
Karl Kleist and the Localisation of the Gemeinschafts-Ich 123
Grey, My Friend, Is All Theory, but Green Is the Golden Tree of Life 128
5 The Microscopy and Endocrinology of the Moral Centre 130
A Time-Consuming Chore 130
Theodor Meynerts Model 132
Criminal Brains in Slices 134
Campbells Lecture in the Shadow of Lantern Slides 135
Paul Flechsigs Rectorial Address 137
To the Somaesthetic Region and Back 141
An Ethical Aristocracy 144
The Revenants of Arthur Van Gehuchten 146
Hormones, Autocoids and Homeostasis 149
Constantin Von Monakows Syneidesis 151
Cains Endocrinological Mark 154
6 The Localisation of Morality in Criminal Anthropology 158
Apelike Thumbs 158
The Rise of Criminal Anthropology 159
The French and German Responses to Lombrosos Born Criminal 161
The Remorseless Criminal 165
The Location of the Absent Moral Sense 167
Neanderthal Versus Cro-Magnon 170
Moritz Benedikts Three Lectures See also Verplaetse (2004). 172
The More Man Possesses a Moral Organ, the More Apelike His Brain Becomes (Meynert) 177
Seelenkunde (1895) or Benedikts Second Localisation of Morality 178
Benedikt as Freethinker 180
The Criminals Brain Tissue 184
Luigi Roncoroni 187
Lamina Granularis Interna 190
Encounters in Alexandersbad 193
Lamina Pyramidalis 195
Moral Association Chains 199
7 Moral Insanity as a Disorder of the Moral Sense 203
Benjamin Rush: Anomia and Micronomia 203
Pinel and Esquirol: Mania and Monomania 205
James Cowles Prichard: Moral Insanity 206
Inhibitory Insanity in England 208
Towards an Ethical Interpretation 210
The Ethical Interpretation of Moral Insanity in Germany 211
The psychopathische Persnlichkeit and the pervers instinctif 214
A Psychological Misnomer (Cyril Burt) 217
The Influence of the Localisation Doctrine 219
There is Only Empty Space 225
No Radical Localisations of Moral Insanity 227
8 Encephalitis Lethargica: A Brain Disease of the Moral Sense? 231
The 19151927 Epidemic Encephalitis Pandemic 231
Personality Disorders 235
Postencephalitic Moral Insanity 240
The Cortical Localisation of the Montpellier School 245
Karl Bonhoeffers Konkordanz 248
Postencephalitic Moral Insanity Under the Microscope 250
Jean Camus Centres Rgulateurs 251
9 ConclusionLocalising the Moral Sense: Believers and Disbelievers 255
An Exceptional Phenomenon 255
The Frustration of the Neuropsychiatrist 260
The Frustration of the Forensic Psychiatrist 265
The Voice in the Blood 270
References 272
Name Index 1
Subject Index 1
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 28.8.2009 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | XX, 292 p. |
| Verlagsort | Dordrecht |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Biopsychologie / Neurowissenschaften | |
| Medizin / Pharmazie | |
| Naturwissenschaften | |
| Technik | |
| Schlagworte | History • insanity • Localization • Morality • Morality, Moral Sense • Neurology • Neuroscience |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4020-6322-9 / 1402063229 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4020-6322-0 / 9781402063220 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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