Mistaken Compassion: Tibetan Buddhist Perspectives on Neuroethics.
AJOB Neuroscience January 1, 2022 Laura Specker Sullivan
Tibetan Buddhist monastics in India hold nuanced views on neuroethical issues that align with theoretical Buddhist perspectives while also highlighting underexplored areas. Eleven semi-structured interviews revealed that monastics' perspectives on identity and authenticity, enhancement, and disorders of consciousness reinforce prior conceptual work on Buddhism and neuroethics. The interviews also identified future areas for inquiry, including the importance of community, challenges in acting from compassion, and the value of self-directed mental cultivation. Despite decades of collaboration between Buddhist monastics and neuroscientists, Buddhist perspectives remain largely absent from contemporary neuroethical analysis, a gap this empirical study begins to fill.