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Moral Brains – Possibilities and Limits of the Neuroscience of Ethics

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Empirically Informed Ethics: Morality between Facts and Norms

Part of the book series: Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy ((LOET,volume 32))

Abstract

A “neuroscience of ethics” focuses on the question of what can be learned about morality or moral standards through a growing understanding of the human brain. After giving a brief overview about psychological models of moral judgment and behavior, we introduce the neuroscience approach and the methods applied to the study of the “moral brain,” including the examination of brain damaged patients, neuroimaging, and neurostimulation. Then, we present main lines of research including our own empirical findings based on a neuroimaging study investigating the influence of individual differences in morality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cluster of Excellence “Languages of Emotion”, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Kristin Prehn & Hauke R. Heekeren

Authors
  1. Kristin Prehn
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  2. Hauke R. Heekeren
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Correspondence to Kristin Prehn .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Ethics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Markus Christen

  2. Anthropological Institute & Museum, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Carel van Schaik

  3. Institute of Social Ethics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Johannes Fischer

  4. University Priority Program Ethics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Markus Huppenbauer

  5. Department of Banking and Finance, Centre for Responsibility in Finance, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Carmen Tanner

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Prehn, K., Heekeren, H.R. (2014). Moral Brains – Possibilities and Limits of the Neuroscience of Ethics. In: Christen, M., van Schaik, C., Fischer, J., Huppenbauer, M., Tanner, C. (eds) Empirically Informed Ethics: Morality between Facts and Norms. Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01369-5_8

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