Review of Martha J. Farah, ed., Neuroethics: An Introduction with Readings

Excerpt

As a cognitive neuroscientist, Martha Farah has done ground-breaking work on the neural bases of vision and memory. More recently, she has been exploring the effects of childhood poverty on brain development, as well as patient-based approaches to cognitive neuroscience. Farah is also a pioneer in neuroethics, having authored or co-authored a number of original and influential papers on topics in both the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics. Thus her book, Neuroethics: An Introduction with Readings, is a welcome and valuable contribution to this interdisciplinary field. In the Preface, she describes the book as “a kind of hybrid between a single-author book and a reader” (xiii). Farah’s overview and introductions to the thematic sections that make up the first component of this hybrid are largely responsible for the success of the book. Unlike what one finds in many anthologies, these are not mere summaries of articles but informative, stimulating, and at times entertaining essays that engage the reader in critically reflecting on ethical problems associated with theoretical and practical dimensions of neuroscience. Farah explains the relevant neuroscience without assuming any knowledge of it, briefly describes and comments on the readings, and raises thoughtful questions for discussion. This makes the book accessible to a broad reading audience. In particular, her description and explanation of the different methods of brain imaging in Chapter 4 is a superb model of clarity. Not only the uninitiated but also those already reading and writing about neuroethics will learn from Farah’s illuminating discussions. While many of the articles may be familiar to those working in this area, they warrant re-reading. Farah says that her goal “is not to deliver a comprehensive review of this subject matter but to offer readers a representative sample of the most interesting and well-articulated ethical issues and to give them a sense of the diversity and nuance of different perspectives on those issues” (p. 3). She achieves this goal through the high quality of her own writing and the excellent selection of papers by prominent authors examining the main questions in neuroethics. …