An African and American Survival Ethics: The Case of Cuba
Abstract
Until recently the principal burden of ethics was to choose among the many possible directions we might take our lives. However, we now face an unprecedented crisis: the possibility of the extinction of life itself. We have known about the possibility of the destruction of the food chain through “nuclear winter” since the 1980s. Consensus has developed on imminent extinction of species through global warming. Effective responses to these threats require global action. However, action must be motivated. Ethics and morality are stimuli to action, but they have never faced such a challenge. Riddled with the disagreement customary to philosophy, contemporary ethical systems are not adequate to the task. Philosophers and neuroscientists have recently proposed that science supplement ethics to give it a more secure foundation. Kwame Anthony Appiah's Experiments in Ethics examines this hypothesis. One of his examples uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to map brain activity while subjects are struggling with ethical dilemmas. Bolder theorists like Richard Joyce claim that ethics must yield its autonomy to the neurobiological and psychological sciences. 1 The task of this essay is to reflect on a fusion of ethics and science. Its method is conceptual analysis rather than experimentation. Its