从生物伦理视角看暴力与同情的认知基础及社会表现

Violence and compassion:a bioethical insight into their cognitive bases and social manifestations

本文从认知神经科学的角度对暴力这一社会问题进行了考察,并对借助合作和同情行为找到问题的解决办法作了思考。暴力是社会问题,其表现形式有着生物学基础,反映在攻击性的形成以及调控攻击性的神经机制之中。合作和同情是两种行为形式,与暴力当中激活的机制有着类似的发育、认知及大脑调控的基础,尽管两者造成的行为后果截然不同。本文将暴力和同情当作两种产生道德行为的机制加以探讨,而道德行为取决于社会文化背景是否有利于人类福祉。本文的结论是:神经认知系统是一种灵活的、可调适的机制,它参照个人生活的社会文化环境直接对行为进行调节。在这个大背景下,联合国教科文组织关于和平文化的宣言提到了与认知和人类心灵相关的概念。所以,认知神经科学为创立和改变思想观念提供了工具,而新的思想观念将最终使人类能和平共处。

This article considers the social problem of violence and the alternative of resolution through cooperation and compassion from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience.Violence is a social problem,the manifestations of which have a biological basis reflected in the development of aggression and the neural mechanisms that regulate it.Cooperation and compassion are two forms of behaviour with similar developmental,cognitive and cerebral regulatory bases to the mechanisms activated in violence,even though they result in radically different forms of behaviour.The article examines violence and compassion as two mechanisms that lead to moral action that depends on whether sociocultural contexts are adverse or favourable to human well-being.It concludes that the neuro-cognitive system is a flexible and adaptable mechanism that regulates behaviour directly,according to the sociocultural context in which individuals live.Against that background,the UNESCO declarations on the culture of peace refer to concepts relating to cognition or the human mind.Cognitive neuroscience therefore provides tools for creating and changing mental concepts that could eventually enable human beings to live together in peace.