Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind

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Princeton University Press, Feb 21, 2013 - Social Science - 352 pages

How the new brain sciences are transforming our understanding of what it means to be human

The brain sciences are influencing our understanding of human behavior as never before, from neuropsychiatry and neuroeconomics to neurotheology and neuroaesthetics. Many now believe that the brain is what makes us human, and it seems that neuroscientists are poised to become the new experts in the management of human conduct. Neuro describes the key developments—theoretical, technological, economic, and biopolitical—that have enabled the neurosciences to gain such traction outside the laboratory. It explores the ways neurobiological conceptions of personhood are influencing everything from child rearing to criminal justice, and are transforming the ways we "know ourselves" as human beings. In this emerging neuro-ontology, we are not "determined" by our neurobiology: on the contrary, it appears that we can and should seek to improve ourselves by understanding and acting on our brains.

Neuro examines the implications of this emerging trend, weighing the promises against the perils, and evaluating some widely held concerns about a neurobiological "colonization" of the social and human sciences. Despite identifying many exaggerated claims and premature promises, Neuro argues that the openness provided by the new styles of thought taking shape in neuroscience, with its contemporary conceptions of the neuromolecular, plastic, and social brain, could make possible a new and productive engagement between the social and brain sciences.

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Contents

Introduction
1
Beyond Cartesianism?
3
Governing through the Brain
6
Our Argument
9
Human Science?
23
One The Neuromolecular Brain
25
Two The Visible Invisible
53
Three Whats Wrong with Their Mice?
82
Five The Social Brain
141
Six The Antisocial Brain
164
Seven Personhood in a Neurobiological Age
199
Conclusion Managing Brains Minds and Selves
225
Appendix How We Wrote This Book
235
Notes
237
References
277
Index
325

Four All in the Brain?
110

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About the author (2013)

Nikolas Rose is professor of sociology and head of the Department of Social Science, Health, and Medicine at King's College London. His books include The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton). Joelle M. Abi-Rached is a PhD candidate in the history of science at Harvard University.

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