Translating Neuroethics: Reflections from Muslim Ethics

摘要

Muslim ethics is cautiously engaging developments in neuroscience. Intheir encounters with developments in neuroscience such as brain death and functionalmagnetic resonance imaging procedures, Muslim ethicists might be on thecusp of spirited debates. Science and religion perform different kinds of work andought not to be conflated. Cultural translation is central to negotiating the complexlife worlds of religious communities, Muslims included. Cultural translationinvolves lived encounters with modernity and its byproduct, modern science.Serious ethical debate requires more than just a mere instrumental encounter withscience. A robust Muslim approach to neuroethics might require an emulsion ofreligion and neuroscience, thought and body, and body and soul. Yet one mustanticipate that Muslim debates in neuroethics will be inflected with Muslim values,symbols and the discrete faith perspectives of this tradition with meanings that arespecific to people who share this worldview and their concerns.