Cognitive sciences and neuroethics

Abstract

This article starts with the discussion between the representational computational cognitive framework versus the enactive perspective of the cognitive science, which argues that knowledge is the result of the body’s interaction with its environment. It discusses the consequences of this enactive perspective for the understanding of neuroethics, read not as a set of ethical parameters for scientific experiments in neurosciences, but as a neural scientific understanding of the moral action. The neural explanation of ethics comprehends neuroimaging as expressions of emotion, but reduce morality to emotions is debatable, since emotional judgments, based on affective proximity, diverge from ethical and universal norms. Another critical point of this framework is the artificiality of its tests, caused by neglecting the environmental effects on daily life, approach brought by the enactive approach.