Introduction to Animal Neuroethics: What and Why?

The emergence and development of neuroethics over the last two decades has occurred in parallel with progress and advancement in several separate sciences, including various neurosciences, comparative psychology, comparative cognition, and ethology. The rapid growth of knowledge about animal brains, minds, intelligence, culture, behaviors, and capacities made by these sciences continues to be integrated into the philosophical discourse on animal ethics, but has thus far had little impact on animal research regulations. Our aim is to bend what have heretofore been more or less parallel tracks into convergence and intersection, and examine the implications of neuroscientific research for our understanding of the minds of other animals, the moral status of these animals, and our moral obligations to them. We challenge neuroethics to adopt a less anthropocentric focus and explore how growing knowledge of nonhuman minds challenges human supremacy.