Epistemological referents of knowledge generation in the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics

This chapter aims to present the epistemological elements that underpin the formulations of two emerging areas of knowledge—the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics—in order to identify the ethical conflicts and the scope that follow from their practice. The first refers to the application of neuroscience research, the set of neurobiological behaviors that condition and facilitate moral decision-making. From this standpoint, the methodological approach is qualitative, based on analysis and on reflection-argumentation concerning the routes of knowledge construction in these areas. The sources of that construction are shown through a set of dialogical bridges among disciplines that generate hybrid sciences built from emerging problems; diverse theoretical-empirical contexts of emergence; a technological presence in the various spheres of human relations; and several challenges and alternatives of these two expressions of neuroscience. The premises of knowledge generation in neuroscience in general center on recognition of the complexity of problems derived from moral behavior and from the characteristics and processes of the brain; the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue, since each discipline integrates diverse studies of the dimensions of the human being; the characterization of the biological, social, and power contexts of neuroscience interventions; caution in the use of technologies, because their development and use can be counterproductive insofar as they carry implicit ideological, financial, commercial, and axiological interests; and the identification of emerging disciplinary fields with collaborative work by specialists and by economic and social sectors that regulate the operation of neurotechnologies, for example.