Man has been pondering for centuries over the basis of his own ethical and aesthetic values. Until recent times, such issues were primarily fed by the thinking of philosophers, moralists and theologists, or by the findings of historians or sociologists relating to universality or variations in these values within various populations. Science has avoided this field of investigation within the confines of philosophy.

Beyond the temptation to stay away from the field of knowledge science may also have felt itself unconcerned by the study of human values for a simple heuristic reason, namely the lack of tools allowing objective study. For the same reason, researchers tended to avoid the study of feelings or consciousness until, over the past two decades, this became a focus of interest for many neuroscientists.

It is apparent that many questions linked to research in the field of neuroscience are now arising. The hope is that this book will help to formulate them more clearly rather than skirting them. The authors do not wish to launch a new moral philosophy, but simply to gather objective knowledge for reflection.

Autorentext
Antonio Damasio ist Professor für Neurowissenschaften, Neurologie und Psychologie an der University of Southern California und Direktor des dortigen Brain and Creativity Institute. Für seine Arbeit wurde er mit zahlreichen Preisen ausgezeichnet, zuletzt erhielt er den renommierten Honda-Preis und die Corine. Damasio ist Fellow der American Academy of Arts and Sciences sowie Mitglied der National Academy of Sciences. Prof. Wolf Singer, 1996-99 Tätigkeit als Medienmanager bei der Bertelsmann AG, 1999-2000 Geschäftsführer des medizinischen Online-Dienstes 'Multimedica' der Bertelsmann AG in Berlin. 2000-04 Leiter Geschäftsentwicklung, Roche Diagnostics GmbH in Mannheim, 2005-07 Leiter Diabetes Care, Roche Diagnostics Niederlande. Seit 2007 Leiter Strategie & Geschäftsentwicklung, Roche Diabetes Care.

Inhalt
Creation, Art, and the Brain.- Did Evolution Fix Human Values?.- Homo homini lupus? Morality, the Social Instincts, and our Fellow Primates.- Disorders of Social Conduct Following Damage to Prefrontal Cortices.- The Neurobiological Grounding of Human Values.- Emotion and Cognition in Moral Judgment: Evidence from Neuroimaging.- Neural substrates of affective style and value.- Cognitive Psychology of Moral Intuitions.- Mirror neuron: a neurological approach to empathy.- How does the brain know when it is right?.- Cerebral basis of human errors.- How a Primate Brain Comes to Know Some Mathematical Truths.