To characterize a given field of knowledge, rather than focusing on what we currently know, or on key episodes of its history, an alternative strategy is to examine the representations of its future that guide and motivate the researchers. This is the reason why, if we want to undersand neuroscience, we should analyze the promises of neuroscience. Promises, in this context, are not speech acts. Scientific promises are future achievements that are considered plausible or probable in the light of our current knowledge, and that, for one reason or another, we perceive as important. To tell that a certain kind of research is « promising » is both to predict some kind of development that derives from it, and to evaluate this development in a positive manner. In this book, chapter 1 explores four areas of contemporary neuroscientific research and the promises associated to them : evolutionary neurobiology and the question of the origins of the neural world ; optogenetics ; connectomics ; neural correlates of pain and the ascription of pain states to distant organisms like fishes. Chapter 2 deals with the promises of different kinds of neuro-enhancement. Chapter 3 asks questions about the ability of neuroscience to contribute to our knowledge of ourselves.