The Political Brain
eBook - PDF

The Political Brain

The Emergence of Neuropolitics

  1. 120 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Political Brain

The Emergence of Neuropolitics

About this book

We have politics on our mind—or, rather, we have politics in different parts of our brains. In this path-breaking study, Matt Qvortrup takes the reader on a whistle stop tour through the fascinating, and sometimes frightening, world of neuropolitics; the discipline that combines neuroscience and politics, and is even being used to win elections.

Putting the 'science' back into political science, The Political Brain shows how fMRI-scans can identify differences between Liberals and Conservatives, can predict our behaviour with sometimes greater accuracy than surveys, and can explain the biology of uprisings, revolutions, and wars.

Not merely a study of empirical evidence, the book shows how the philosophical theories of, among others, Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza can be supported by brain scans. Along the way, it also provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge of the organ that shapes our politics. The book shows that if we rely on evolutionary primitive parts of the midbrain—those engaged when we succumb to polarised politics—we stand in danger of squandering the gains we made through the last eight million years.

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Yes, you can access The Political Brain by Matt Qvortrup in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Globalisation. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Front matter
  3. About the series
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword by Barbara J. Sahakian
  6. Preface: The Brain in Political Research
  7. Introduction: The State of Neuropolitics
  8. Chapter One: The Brain: A Philosophical and Historical Introduction
  9. Chapter Two: The Neuropolitics of Us and Them
  10. Chapter Three: Social Neuroscience, Political Attitudes, and Election Campaigns
  11. Chapter Four: The Listening Brain: The State We Ought to Be In
  12. Epilogue: Inconclusive Scientific Postscript
  13. Notes
  14. Subject Index
  15. Name Index
  16. Back cover