ABSTRACT
Cognitive neuroscience is a broad, and still expanding, church. Social cognitive neuroscience (Ochsner & Lieberman, 2001) and cognitive neuropsychiatry (David & Halligan, 1996), for example, are two emerging disciplines that might have a claim to a place in the congregation. The ultimate goal of cognitive neuroscience is no less than a complete understanding of the way that the operations of the brain give rise to the perceptions, thoughts, and actions that comprise our psychological lives. Few would disagree that this goal is a long way off, but set against this there are now certainly more scientists who believe that this is a tractable goal than there were even a decade ago. Furthermore, if the intermediate goal of cognitive neuroscience were couched a little more conservatively-as, perhaps, a discipline that aims simply to provide a more clear understanding of the relationships between neural and mental events than is available currently-there would be few scientists who would dissent with the argument that this goal can be, and indeed is being, accomplished.
