Neurometaphysics and Politics
It is striking to have a website about neurometaphysics, where all of the discussion is of politics with no discussion of neuroscience and philosophy at all. There are however connections to neuroscience, which I can at least intimate. Insofar as neuroscience is to give us a philosophy of life, as Micheal Gazzaniga, the famous neuroscientist claims, there are some principles that guide us.
1. Behaviour aims to fulfill needs.
2. The body is where experience happens.
3. Emotional well-being is essential to the over-all functioning of the self-system, and hence brain.
4. Though pleasure is an evolutionary guide to survival, it must be appropriately governed, individually and socially.
The principles have implicit implications for ethics and politics, which may be argued for. Having a basic concept of human well-being, it is possible to design a republic. Though a republic is partly a spontaneous and natural occurrence, it can benefit from collective planning. At the very least we can aim to provide the opportunity for all people to obtain basic needs, with access to higher cognitive development, whether abstract, physical, or both. We ought to be weary of conditions that thwart the aim of self-fulfillment; that is, forms of organization that alienate us from our fellows.
Politically, unpropitious circumstances lead to instability and revolution, as we see in history. On an individual level, we ought to attempt to keep in view the over-all picture of time and place--our social circumstance--even though we have to function within it. Bringing with it a new world, brain-based philosophy helps us justify ancient wisdom and challenge some of it, too.
It is healthy to take care of oneself, physically, economically, and socially, which is co-extensive with spiritual fulfillment of the self; at the very least, some requirements are needed for cognitive development of virtues. Further, cognitive abilities ought not to be pitted against the emotions. After all, we use the mind to maximize basic pleasures, and all our end goals, hence values, have an emotional component. Connected to evolutionary development of the emotions, the correct development of self has a social aspect, which should try to realize in our lives.
2. The body is where experience happens.
3. Emotional well-being is essential to the over-all functioning of the self-system, and hence brain.
4. Though pleasure is an evolutionary guide to survival, it must be appropriately governed, individually and socially.
The principles have implicit implications for ethics and politics, which may be argued for. Having a basic concept of human well-being, it is possible to design a republic. Though a republic is partly a spontaneous and natural occurrence, it can benefit from collective planning. At the very least we can aim to provide the opportunity for all people to obtain basic needs, with access to higher cognitive development, whether abstract, physical, or both. We ought to be weary of conditions that thwart the aim of self-fulfillment; that is, forms of organization that alienate us from our fellows.
Politically, unpropitious circumstances lead to instability and revolution, as we see in history. On an individual level, we ought to attempt to keep in view the over-all picture of time and place--our social circumstance--even though we have to function within it. Bringing with it a new world, brain-based philosophy helps us justify ancient wisdom and challenge some of it, too.
It is healthy to take care of oneself, physically, economically, and socially, which is co-extensive with spiritual fulfillment of the self; at the very least, some requirements are needed for cognitive development of virtues. Further, cognitive abilities ought not to be pitted against the emotions. After all, we use the mind to maximize basic pleasures, and all our end goals, hence values, have an emotional component. Connected to evolutionary development of the emotions, the correct development of self has a social aspect, which should try to realize in our lives.
Labels: Neuropolitics
posted by Anoop Gupta at 21:42
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