"Whole brain" politics and brain laterality research.
The paper discusses a recent international conference in Munich (FRG) on brain-laterality research. An open letter on the goals of the conference is considered. In this letter, the "automatic" moral and intellectual decay of "left brain" modern society was predicted, and a clarion call for the reinsertion of "whole brain" values into our over-mechanized culture was sounded. Discussion of the conference itself focuses on the political and social risks involved in selling irrationalist ideologies - even well-meaning ones - in the name of science. The paper calls for a more responsible attitude among modern brain-laterality researchers who would participate in scientific conferences that blur the distinction between description and social prescription.
Harrington
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Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Oepen
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D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003405:Creativity; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D010553:Personality Development; D011057:Politics