Ethical Controversies in Psychology and Neuroscience

Can brain scans really see your thoughts? Should your brain or your free will be held responsible for your behavior? Should psychoactive drugs be used to enhance our lives—even to make us superhuman—or only to treat illness? Psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience raise a host of ethical controversies, from their claim to peer into the privacy of the mind, to their applications in the criminal justice system, to their treatment of experimental subjects (both human and animal), to the myriad uses of artificial intelligence. Rather than attempting to determine the right answers, this course explores the scientific, social, and political issues, and the moral and religious values, that these questions involve. Readings include works by scientists, philosophers, historians, theologians, and ethicists. Students enact the roles of stakeholders in in-class debates on issues raised by the present-day technologies of mind and brain.