Neuroscience and Critique

'De Vos and Pluth deliver what is really needed today: a critique of neuroscientific reason in the strict Kantian sense. They avoid the twin trap of either succumbing to the fascination with brain sciences or their desperate humanist rejection. Instead, they ask the truly relevant questions about the exact status of neurosciences, as well as about their epistemological, ethical and political implications. It’s a book for those who still dare to think!' – Slavoj Žižek, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

'The contributors to Neuroscience and Critique bring cutting-edge theoretical concepts and debates to bear on the claim that research in neurology can finally explain the formation and operation of our subjectivity. The ‘limits’ of the neuro-turn turn out to be intrinsic to our nature as human subjects, a nature that neuroscience caricatures as it attempts to capture it. This book intensifies the terms of critique so that we are able to see how we might escape neuro-reductionism while embracing the indeterminate and ethical choices that real ‘critique’ requires'. – Ian Parker, Psychoanalyst in Manchester and Professor of Management, University of Leicester, UK

'[Those] interested... will find Neuroscience and Critique likely to be one of the most stimulating and thought-provoking books they will have read in recent years... [If] your idea of "beach reading" is thoughtful, substantive, scholarly writing that takes you outside your usual reading ruts so that you return to your endeavors enriched--well, have I got a critique for you.' -Richard Ruth, George Washington University, PsycCritiques

De Vos and Pluth deliver what is really needed today: a critique of neuroscientific reason in the strict Kantian sense. They avoid the twin trap of either succumbing to the fascination with brain sciences or their desperate humanist rejection. Instead, they ask the truly relevant questions about the exact status of neurosciences, as well as about their epistemological, ethical and political implications. It’s a book for those who still dare to think! - Slavoj Žižek, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The contributors to Neuroscience and Critique bring cutting-edge theoretical concepts and debates to bear on the claim that research in neurology can finally explain the formation and operation of our subjectivity. The ‘limits’ of the neuro-turn turn out to be intrinsic to our nature as human subjects, a nature that neuroscience caricatures as it attempts to capture it. This book intensifies the terms of critique so that we are able to see how we might escape neuro-reductionism while embracing the indeterminate and ethical choices that real ‘critique’ requires. - Ian Parker, Psychoanalyst in Manchester and Professor of Management, University of Leicester, UK