From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sun Sep 16 2001 - 08:58:31 MDT
Why saving a life is not like taking a bus
13 September 2001 17:25 EST
by Apoorva Mandavilli, BioMedNet News
http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=010914&story=2
In the wake of the events of the past 48 hours, many people have been
grappling
with moral judgments: Firefighters and rescue workers who choose to risk their
own lives to save others, politicians and common folk who balance revenge
against humanitarianism, justice and fairness. It's a perfect ilustration that
emotions play a role in moral judgments, say Princeton University scientists,
who report today that brain images can demonstrate how emotions and logic are
intertwined.
Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) analyzing brain activity in people
considering moral dilemmas, they find, show a greater level of activation in
emotion-related areas of the brain during moral decision-making than when
someone is considering questions not weighted with a moral component.
The study is not "moral philosophy with a brain scanner" nor the first news
that emotions are important in moral judgment, which has been known for
decades, said Joshua Greene, a graduate student in philosophy and first author
on the paper. Instead, the study suggests that when faced with tough moral
dilemmas, people draw on their emotions, rather than relying strictly on
rational thinking.
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Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values
We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.
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