The self beyond itself : an alternative history of ethics, the new brain sciences, and the myth of free will / Heidi M. Ravven.

New York : New Press, [2013], ©2013.

xv, 507 pages ; 25 cm

Searching for ethics: how do people become good (and bad)? -- Moral lessons of the Holocaust about good and evil, perpetrators and rescuers -- Overwhelming power of the group and the situation -- What happened to ethics: the Augustinian legacy of free will -- Another modernity: the moral naturalism of Maimonides and Spinoza -- Surveying the field: how the new brain sciences are exploring how and why we are (and are not) ethical -- Beginning again: the blessing and curse of neuroplasticity: interpretation (almost) all the way down -- Self in itself: what we can learn from the new brain sciences about self-protection, self-furthering and the 'I that is we' -- Self beyond itself: 'the we that is I' and the 'I that is we' -- What is ethics? how does moral agency work?.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 421-479) and index.