The Scientific Study of Consciousness Cannot and Should Not Be Morally Neutral

被引:5
作者
Mazor, Matan [1 ,2 ]
Brown, Simon [3 ]
Ciaunica, Anna [4 ]
Demertzi, Athena [5 ,6 ]
Fahrenfort, Johannes [7 ,8 ]
Faivre, Nathan [9 ,10 ,11 ]
Francken, Jolien C. [12 ]
Lamy, Dominique [13 ,14 ]
Lenggenhager, Bigna [15 ]
Moutoussis, Michael [2 ,16 ]
Nizzi, Marie-Christine [17 ,18 ,19 ]
Salomon, Roy [20 ]
Soto, David [21 ,22 ]
Stein, Timo [7 ]
Lubianiker, Nitzan [14 ,23 ]
机构
[1] Birkbeck Univ London, Dept Psychol Sci, London, England
[2] UCL, Wellcome Ctr Human Neuroimaging, Inst Neurol, London, England
[3] Johns Hopkins Univ, Dept Philosophy, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA
[4] Univ Lisbon, Ctr Philosophy Sci, Lisbon, Portugal
[5] Univ Liege, GIGA Consciousness Res Unit, Physiol Cognit, Liege, Belgium
[6] Fund Sci Res, Brussels, Belgium
[7] Univ Amsterdam, Dept Psychol, Amsterdam, Netherlands
[8] Vrije Univ, Dept Expt & Appl Psychol, Amsterdam, Netherlands
[9] Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Ctr Neuroprosthet, Fac Life Sci, Zurich, Switzerland
[10] Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Brain Mind Inst, Fac Life Sci, Zurich, Switzerland
[11] Univ Grenoble Alpes, Univ Savoie Mt Blanc, LPNC, CNRS, Grenoble, France
[12] Radboud Univ Nijmegen, Fac Philosophy Theol & Religious Studies, Nijmegen, Netherlands
[13] Tel Aviv Univ, Sagol Sch Neurosci, Tel Aviv, Israel
[14] Tel Aviv Univ, Sch Psychol Sci, Tel Aviv, Israel
[15] Univ Zurich, Dept Psychol, Zurich, Switzerland
[16] UCL, Max Planck Univ Coll, London Ctr Computat Psychiat & Ageing Res, London, England
[17] Univ Calif Los Angeles, David Geffen Sch Med, Semel Inst Neurosci & Human Behav, Dept Psychiat & Biobehav Sci, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA
[18] Dartmouth Coll, Cognit Sci Program, Hanover, NH 03755 USA
[19] Chapman Univ, Inst Interdisciplinary Brain & Behav Sci, Orange, CA USA
[20] Bar Ilan Univ, Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Res Ctr, Ramat Gan, Israel
[21] Basque Ctr Cognit Brain & Language, San Sebastian, Spain
[22] Basque Fdn Sci, Ikerbasque, Bilbao, Spain
[23] Tel Aviv Med Ctr & Sch Med, Sagol Brain Inst, Tel Aviv, Israel
关键词
allied field; philosophy; application; policy; comparative psychology; consciousness; ethics; metascience; SELF-RECOGNITION; MODEL; ANIMALS; MEAT; MIND;
D O I
10.1177/17456916221110222
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
A target question for the scientific study of consciousness is how dimensions of consciousness, such as the ability to feel pain and pleasure or reflect on one's own experience, vary in different states and animal species. Considering the tight link between consciousness and moral status, answers to these questions have implications for law and ethics. Here we point out that given this link, the scientific community studying consciousness may face implicit pressure to carry out certain research programs or interpret results in ways that justify current norms rather than challenge them. We show that because consciousness largely determines moral status, the use of nonhuman animals in the scientific study of consciousness introduces a direct conflict between scientific relevance and ethics-the more scientifically valuable an animal model is for studying consciousness, the more difficult it becomes to ethically justify compromises to its well-being for consciousness research. Finally, in light of these considerations, we call for a discussion of the immediate ethical corollaries of the body of knowledge that has accumulated and for a more explicit consideration of the role of ideology and ethics in the scientific study of consciousness.
引用
收藏
页码:535 / 543
页数:9
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