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Palgrave Macmillan

The Law and Ethics of Freedom of Thought, Volume 1

Neuroscience, Autonomy, and Individual Rights

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Editors:
  1. Marc Jonathan Blitz

    1. Law, Oklahoma City University School of Law, Oklahoma City, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Jan Christoph Bublitz

    1. Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Argues that freedom of thought has been neglected in the scholarly and legal literature, and aims to address that gap
  • Examines the implications of emerging neuroscience technologies for freedom of thought
  • Presents interdisciplinary insights from leading scholars across the fields of law, philosophy, and psychology

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Law, Neuroscience, and Human Behavior (PASTLNHB)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxix
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  2. Freedom of Thought in Political History

    • Lucas Swaine
    Pages 1-25

  3. Freedom of Thought: Who, What, and Why?

    • Simon McCarthy-Jones
    Pages 27-47

  4. Freedom of Thought as an International Human Right: Elements of a Theory of a Living Right

    • Jan Christoph Bublitz
    Pages 49-101

  5. Freedom of Thought and the Structure of American Constitutional Rights

    • Marc Jonathan Blitz
    Pages 103-151

  6. Why is It Wrong to Punish Thought?

    • Gabriel S. Mendlow
    Pages 153-181

  7. Autonomy, Evidence-Responsiveness, and the Ethics of Influence

    • Fay Niker, Gidon Felsen, Saskia K. Nagel, Peter B. Reiner
    Pages 183-212

  8. The Ethics of Memory Dampening

    • Adam J. Kolber
    Pages 213-240

  9. Cognitive Liberty of the Person with a Psychotic Disorder

    • Mari Stenlund
    Pages 241-258

  10. Technology Against Technology: A Case for Embedding Limits in Neurodevices to Protect Our Freedom of Thought

    • Andrea Lavazza
    Pages 259-289

  11. Varieties of (Extended) Thought Manipulation

    • J. Adam Carter
    Pages 291-309

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 311-317
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Keywords

About this book

Freedom of thought is one of the great and venerable notions of Western thought, often celebrated in philosophical texts – and described as a crucial right in American, European, and International Law, and in that of other jurisdictions.  What it means more precisely is, however, anything but clear; surprisingly little writing has been devoted to it.  In the past, perhaps, there has been little need for such elaboration.  As one Supreme Court Justice stressed, “[f]reedom to think is absolute of its own nature” because even “the most tyrannical government is powerless to control the inward workings of the mind.” But the rise of brain scanning, cognition enhancement, and other emerging technologies make this question a more pressing one. This volume provides an interdisciplinary exploration of how freedom of thought might function as an ethical principle and as a constitutional or human right.  It draws on philosophy, legal analysis, history, and reflections on neuroscience and neurotechnology to explore what respect for freedom of thought (or an individual’s cognitive liberty or autonomy) requires.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Law, Oklahoma City University School of Law, Oklahoma City, USA

    Marc Jonathan Blitz

  • Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Jan Christoph Bublitz

About the editors

Marc Jonathan Blitz is Alan Joseph Bennett Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University, USA. His scholarship and teaching focus on how emerging technologies – such as cognitive enhancement, brain scanning technologies, and virtual and augmented reality – raise questions about freedom of speech, privacy, and other areas of American constitutional law.

Jan Christoph Bublitz is a researcher at the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on criminal law, legal theory, and human rights law, often with an interdisciplinary twist. He was awarded the Young Scholar Prize of the International Association of Legal and Social Philosophy for studies on the right to freedom of thought.





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