The Dark Side of Rationality. Does Universal Moral Grammar Exist?

Over a century ago, psychoanalysis created an unprecedented challenge: to show that the effects of the unconscious are more powerful than those of consciousness. In an inverted scheme at present time, neurosciences challenge psychoanalysis with experimental and clinical models that are clarifying crucial aspects of the human mind. Freud himself loved to say that psychological facts do not fluctuate in the air and that perhaps one day, biologists and psychoanalysts would give a common explanation for psychic processes. Today, the rapid development of neuroimaging methods has ushered in a new season of research. Crucial questions are becoming more apparent. For instance, how can the brain generate conscious states? Does consciousness only involve limited area of the brain? These are insistent questions in a time where the tendency of neuroscience to naturalize our relationship life is ever more urgent. Consequently, these questions are also pressing: Does morality originate in the brain? Can we still say “being free” or freedom? Why does morality even exist? Lastly, is there a biologically founded universal morality? This paper will try to demonstrate how neurophysiology itself shows the implausibility of a universal morality.