Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T13:53:50.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

NEUROREDUCTIONISM ABOUT SEX AND LOVE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2014

Julian Savulescu  and
Brian D. Earp
Get access

Abstract

‘Neuroreductionism’ is the tendency to reduce complex mental phenomena to brain states, confusing correlation for physical causation. In this paper, we illustrate the dangers of this popular neuro-fallacy, by looking at an example drawn from the media: a story about ‘hypoactive sexual desire disorder’ in women. We discuss the role of folk dualism in perpetuating such a confusion, and draw some conclusions about the role of ‘brain scans’ in our understanding of romantic love.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 13 , Issue 38 , Autumn 2014 , pp. 7 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 It's also worth noting, as Neil Levy pointed out to us (personal correspondence) that ‘many non-reductive physicalists, while certainly agreeing with this claim, also assert a stronger claim: something like “though mental states are completely caused by physical states they are not identical to physical states.” So it's not just pragmatics – what kind of explanation allows for better understanding of what matters to us – but metaphysics that is at issue’ for these kinds of physicalist thinkers.

2 See story at http://bbc.in/a4CHXf.

3 Now, Dr. Diamond's evidence might show that the women are not ‘faking’ their low libido, which could be one sense in which you could argue that they had a ‘real disorder’. But it is silent on etiology – the question of cause – and it depends very much on one's definition of ‘disorder’. For example, it might be a real disorder that is also a ‘societal construct’. That is, some self-conceptions are shaped by notions that are available in a given culture (but not others), and these conceptions can influence one's functioning in ways that are detrimental to their well-being in that context. The Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders from the American Psychiatric Association, for example, recognizes a number of ‘culture-bound’ disorders.

4 See story at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2943-brain-tumour-causes-uncontrollable-paedophilia.html#.U3EBgF5H1fM.

5 Earp, B. D., Sandberg, A., & Savulescu, J. ‘Natural selection, childrearing, and the ethics of marriage (and divorce): Building a case for the neuroenhancement of human relationships’, Philosophy & Technology, vol. 25, no. 4, (2012), 561–587CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

6 Wudarczyk, O. A., Earp, B. D., Guastella, A., and Savulescu, J. ‘Could intranasal oxytocin be used to enhance relationships? Research imperatives, clinical policy, and ethical considerations’, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, (2013) vol. 26, no. 5, 474–484CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

7 Earp, B. D., Sandberg, A., & Savulescu, J. (forthcoming). The medicalization of love. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare EthicsGoogle ScholarPubMed.

8 Some of the material in this paper has been adapted from a blog post by the first author for the Practical Ethics blog at the University of Oxford. See http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2010/10/is-low-libido-a-brain-disorder/. We thank Neil Levy for providing feedback during revisions.