The bottom-up approach to NE is a quantitative approach (based on scientometric methods) that, among other things, allows us to outline the field from 1995 until 2012 through the development of subject categories or topic prototypes.[14] Although similar work has been done before, for example, by Gooray & Ferguson (2013), Garnet et al. (2011), or Seixas & Basto (2008), no bottom-up approach to NE based on such a comprehensive database as that of Hildt et al. (forthcoming) has yet been attempted.[15] To be more precise, they use the Mainz NE bibliography.[16]
The Mainz bibliography (launched in 2006) is an open-access online bibliography compiled and provided by the Mainz Research Group on Neuroethics/Neurophilosophy.[17] Currently, the bibliography, as a multimodal compilation of NE publications (e.g., anthologies, edited volumes, journal articles, and monographs), contains about 4095 entries produced between 1949 and mid-2014. On the one hand, the bibliography is based on regular scans of relevant journals from neuroscience and medicine (e.g., Cortex, Der Nervenarzt, EMBO Reports, Journal of Neurology, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Neurocritical Care, NeuroImage, Neurology, Neuropsychology Review, Psychopharmacology, Science, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences), philosophy (e.g., American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, American Journal of Bioethics, Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Consciousness and Cognition, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Journal of Medical Ethics, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, Neuroethics, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, Science and Engineering Ethics, Hastings Center Report, The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics), the humanities, and social sciences.[18] On the other hand, the bibliography is based on regular searches of both relevant citation (meta-)databases such as Web of Science,[19] PubMed,[20] and Scopus,[21] and relevant bibliographies such as the Brainstorm[22] newsletter of the Canadian Neuroethics and Mental Health Interest Group. The bibliography also incorporates irregular additions of relevant publications (mainly anthologies, edited volumes, and monographs) as soon as the Research Group on Neuroethics/Neurophilosophy becomes aware of them. Regarding the selection criteria for publications from the various sources, publications from neuroscience or medicine are selected if they refer to the philosophical, ethical, anthropological, or socio-cultural impact of the presented results, whereas publications from philosophy, the humanities, or social sciences are selected if they refer to empirical results from neuroscience or medicine. Moreover, non-transdisciplinary publications are selected if the Research Group on Neuroethics/Neurophilosophy considers them to be relevant to NE.[23]
Subsequently, Hildt et al. (forthcoming) use a bibliometric analysis of the Mainz NE bibliography from 1995 until 2012 to develop, among other things, fifteen subject categories or topic prototypes on content-based criteria. Thereby, each subject category or topic prototype is defined by up to thirty-one keywords that appear frequently in the abstracts and titles of the publications. These fifteen subject categories or topic prototypes are Addiction, Brain Death and Severe Disorders of Consciousness, Brain Stimulation, Enhancement, Legal Studies, (Medical) Research and Medicine, Molecular Neurobiology and Genetics, Moral Theory, Neuroimaging, Neuroscience and Society, Neurosurgery, Philosophy of Mind and Consciousness, Psychiatric and Neurodegenerative Diseases and Disorders, Psychopharmacology, and Social and Economic Neuroscience. Each subject category or topic prototype represents certain issues discussed in NE[24] and, taken together, they outline the field.[25] Importantly, Hildt et al. (forthcoming) also determine, among other things, the connection strengths[26] between the subject categories or topic prototypes within NE. Due to the content-based development of the subject categories or topic prototypes, a keyword-based search of the abstract and title of any publication in NE allows us to assimilate it to (at least) one subject category or topic prototype[27] and, thereby, localize it within NE.
In the following, I apply the bottom-up approach to NE to Churchland’s publication and present my case study results. I thereby attempt to achieve the first part of my epistemic goal, which is to localize Churchland’s publication within NE.