Neurocriticism: a contribution to the study of the etiology, phenomenology, and ethics of the use and abuse of the prefix neuro-

Abstract

The last few decades, beside being proclaimed "the decades of the brain" or "the decades of the mind," have witnessed a fascinating explosion of new disciplines and pseudo-disciplines characterized by the prefix neuro-. to the "old" specializations of neurosurgery, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, neurobiology, etc., some new ones have to be added, which might sound somehow awkward, like neurophilosophy, neuroethics, neuropolitics, neurotheology, neuroanthropology, neuroeconomy, and other. Placing that phenomenon of "neuroization" of all fields of human thought and practice into a context of mostly unjustified and certainly too high – almost millenarianistic – expectations of the science of the brain and mind at the end of the 20th century, the present paper tries to analyze when the use of the prefix neuro- is adequate and when it is dubious.