open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/jaep.12.8

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/81947

A Critical Review of Mirror Neurons in Business Ethics : They Don’t Reflect As Much As You Think

英語

action understanding

2021-02

Center for Applied Ethics and Philosophy, Hokkaido University

Journal of Applied Ethics and Philosophy

12

8-18

Mirror neuron activation (MNA) has been applied to number of business ethics contexts including marketing, charitable giving, organizational connectedness, and leadership. Unfortunately, the business literature has often ignored research in philosophy and psychology which can provide insight into the application of mirror neurons to business contexts and other disciplines. I will argue that the use of mirror neurons to support business decisions cannot be established solely on the existence of neural activation as it requires higher level cognitive functions that go beyond biological reductionism. But research into MNA does support their use in basic motor action understanding which is below the level of mental and psychological attributions. The corollary supports a dual-process model. On the one hand, mirror neurons are an automatic and unconscious process by which we understand human movement and, on the other hand, there is a cognitive system by which we understand action in terms of situational specifics and mental states.

紀要論文

Version of Record

1883-0129