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Index to Course Materials
Brief
Description of the Course
Weekly
Topical Outline
Reading List
Discussion
Questions
Why
Cognitive Liberty & Neuroethics?
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Brief
Description of the Course
Questions
concerning freedom and coercion have played a fundamental role in the
development of our society; the rapid flow of technological advances that
we are experiencing often overtakes society’s ability to consider their
implications in depth. Freedom and personal identity are being challenged
on numerous fronts, and it is crucial that these issues be explored in a
time when one’s perception of self identity may be bought, sold and
manipulated in numerous ways. Cognitive
Liberty may be defined as “the right
of each individual to think independently, to use the full spectrum
of his or her mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought,” and is
the basis of the rights conferred by the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The course engages students in an
engaging investigation of the ethics and implications of
current social trends and practices affecting freedom of thought and
mental autonomy, and covers topics including philosophy, technology, law,
drugs, media, surveillance and academic freedom.
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Weekly
Topical Outline
Click
for Weekly Readings and Discussion questions
Week 1:
Introduction to Cognitive Liberty
Week 2:
Introduction II: Philosophical Issues
Week 3:
Food for Thought: Input & Output
Week 4:
Manufacturing Content I: Freedom and the Classroom
(Academic and Intellectual Freedom)
Week 5:
Manufacturing Content II:
The Construction of Social Meaning
Week 6:
Consuming Thoughts: The Mass Media
Week 7:
The Politics of Consciousness, Altered States, & Baseline
Consciousness
Week 8:
Drugs: A Highly
Opi(nion)ated Battle
Week 9:
Technology & the Mind I
Week
10:
Technology & the Mind II: Social Implications
Week
11:
Reading the Mind:
Looking Out, Looking In-Surveillance
Technologies
Week
12:
Reality Models
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an "rtf" version of the complete reading list
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Why
Cognitive Liberty & Neuroethics?
General
Description
Cognitive
Liberty and Neuroethics is a course designed to get
people thinking, to entice them to think about their modes of
thinking, and above all to take their ability to think seriously. With the
acquisition of a critical understanding of the proposed subject matter,
students will gain an understanding of how such things as technologies,
laws, and social rules factor into – and thus shape – their lives.
Questions concerning freedom and coercion have played a fundamental role
in the development of our society; the rapid flow of technological
advances that we are experiencing often overtakes society’s ability to
consider their implications in depth. Freedom and personal identity are
being challenged on numerous fronts, and it is crucial that these issues
be explored in a time when one’s perception of self identity may be
bought, sold and manipulated in numerous ways. Cognitive
Liberty may be defined as “the right
of each individual to think independently, to use the full spectrum
of his or her mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought,” and is
the basis of the rights conferred by the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The course engages students in an
engaging investigation of the ethics and implications of
current social trends and practices affecting freedom of thought and
mental autonomy, and covers
topics including philosophy, technology, law, drugs, media, surveillance
and academic freedom.
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to top...
Why
is "neuroethics" relevant to cognitive liberty?
Neuroethics is a new field concerned with the benefits and dangers of modern
research on the brain, and by extension, with the social, legal and
ethical implications of treating or manipulating the mind.
Growing
knowledge in the neurosciences, enhanced by exponential advances in
neurotechnology (technology that makes it possible to monitor and
manipulate the brain) are rapidly moving brain research and clinical
applications beyond the scope of purely medical use. As was the case in
discussions of bioethics, neuroethics will predictably shift from
questions concerning the treatment of patients with disease, to a debate
over individuals' requests for voluntary, life-enhancing applications of
new brain technologies. For example, as brain-to-computer interfaces
are perfected and neuro-pharmacology becomes more precise and more
sophisticated, the question of how these brain technologies relate to an
individual's right to control or alter his or her own consciousness will
emerge as central to the debate. Cognitive liberty and the conditions
of mental autonomy are central to any discussion of neuroethics, and
vice-versa.
Neuroethical
inquiry must, then, necessarily involve discussion of personal autonomy.
Technological advancements are often portrayed and marketed as
life-enhancing, even though they may have negative connotations for both
the individual and society at large. Examples of current problems related
to the issue of brain and thought control include the forced drugging of
non-violent prisoners (such as in the case of Dr. Sell), and the pervasive
use of Ritalin on children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (parents have been taken to court for refusing to drug their
children on the basis of its dangerous side-effects). Altering an
individual’s brain chemistry with certain drugs directly affects their
personality, and the way in which they encounter the world; if a person is
drugged against their will, they lose their autonomy, and perhaps their
ability to ‘be themselves.’ Without autonomy, and the right to control
one’s own brain chemistry, many other rights we value become
meaningless.
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Course
Objectives
This
course serves to fulfill two main purposes:
(i) to create a critical
environment for the discussion of the topic of cognitive liberty, in which
students may actively engage in informed discussions of matters pertaining
to the subject, and
(ii) to provide a
multidisciplinary forum inviting students to participate in a subject that
simultaneously relates to their overall educational experience and to the
day-to-day reality of their lives – hence the importance of such topics
as surveillance, academic freedom, and the media.
Cognitive
Liberty and Neuroethics will
provide an opportunity for students and academics to critically assess
their position regarding freedom of thought; the course will enable
informed students to consider issues that affect the way in which society
has organized and is organizing itself. Persons who are conscious of
freedom-related issues will be more capable of affecting public policy in
an educated and thoughtful manner, whatever their opinions on the matter
may be. As our ability to think is affected and altered by rapidly
advancing new technologies and techniques, it is of utmost importance that
we understand the implications of such technologies both for the
enhancement and / or the manipulation of members of society, including
ourselves.
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