Qvortrup The Political Brain

The Emergence of Neuropolitics
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-963-386-660-3
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 120 Seiten

We have politics on our mind—or, rather, we have politics in different parts of our brains. In this path-breaking study, Matt Qvortrup takes the reader on a whistle stop tour through the fascinating, and sometimes frightening, world of neuropolitics; the discipline that combines neuroscience and politics, and is even being used to win elections.

Putting the 'science' back into political science, The Political Brain shows how fMRI-scans can identify differences between Liberals and Conservatives, can predict our behaviour with sometimes greater accuracy than surveys, and can explain the biology of uprisings, revolutions, and wars.

Not merely a study of empirical evidence, the book shows how the philosophical theories of, among others, Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza can be supported by brain scans. Along the way, it also provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge of the organ that shapes our politics. The book shows that if we rely on evolutionary primitive parts of the midbrain—those engaged when we succumb to polarised politics—we stand in danger of squandering the gains we made through the last eight million years.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Qvortrup, Matt

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword
Barbara J. Sahakian
Preface: The Brain in Political Research
Introduction: The State of Neuropolitics

Chapter One: The Brain: A Philosophical and Historical Introduction
Chapter Two: The Neuropolitics of Us and Them
Chapter Three: Social Neuroscience, Political Attitudes, and Election Campaigns
Chapter Four: The Listening Brain: The State We Ought to Be In

Epilogue: Inconclusive Scientific Postscript

Notes
Subject Index
Name Index