Stony Brook Mind/Brain Lecture Series

 

12th Annual Lecture:

 

Decisions, Responsiblity and the Brain 

 

Guest Lecturer:

Patricia Smith Churchland,

B. Phil.

Philosophy Department

University of California at San Diego

La Jolla, California

 

Monday, March 10, 2008

4:30 PM

 

Staller Center for the Arts, Main Stage

Stony Brook University (Main Campus), Stony Brook, NY

(Free presentation, intended for a general audience.)

 

Event overview:

As we come to understand the role of genes in neuronal wiring, and neuronal wiring in the production of behavior, we are newly confronted with questions about choice and responsibility. Although questions concerning what free choice really amounts to have long been at the center of philosophical reflection, new discoveries, especially  from neuropharmacology and neuropsychology, have lent them a special and very practical urgency.  In the courts, in the education of children, and in general in daily life, we assume that some decisions are freely made and that agents should be held accountable for those decisions. On the other hand, we see the range of allowable excuses from responsibility broadening as we begin to understand the role of certain neuropathologies in aberrant behavior. These developments take place against the public policy debate concerning the right balance between considerations of public safety, justice, fairness, and individual freedom. From the perspective of neurophilosophy, I shall address some of the broad questions in this arena, including the theological and metaphysical contention that free choice is uncaused choice, and the proposal that pragmatic and scientific considerations can yield the best working basis for assignment of responsibility.

 

Additional Information

 

The Swartz Foundation – Mind/Brain Lecture Series Home Page

http://www.theswartzfoundation.org/research_c.asp

 

Stony Brook University Mind/Brain Lecture Series Home Page

http://ws.cc.stonybrook.edu/sb/mind/index.shtml

 

 

Directions to Stony Brook University

http://ws.cc.stonybrook.edu/sb/directions.shtml

 

 

Related resources on the Internet:

 

Patricia Smith Churchland’s Home Page
http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/pschurchland/index20.html

Books by Patricia Smith Churchland

Patricia Churchland – Wikipedia page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Churchland

 

Mind Hacks: Patricia Churchland - mind, body and brain

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/03/patricia_churchland_.html

 

Onegoodmove - Patricia Churchland presentation at Beyond Belief 2006

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/12/patricia_church.html

 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Pat Churchland, 1 March 2007

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/inconversation/stories/2007/1852346.htm

 

Can Neurobiology Teach us Anything about Consciousness? - Pat Churchland,

9/25/95

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/church.neuro.html

 

UCSD's Patricia Churchland in an insightful discussion with scientist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward O.Wilson

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4309189871906206292

 

Naturalism.Org – Soul & Free Will Roundup - Pat Churchland

http://www.naturalism.org/roundup.htm

 

University of California Television – Pat Churchland: Philosophy in the Age of Neuroscience

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=5645

 

University of California Television – Pat Churchland: Decisions, Responsibility and the Brain

http://www.uctv.tv/library-test.asp?showID=11190

 

Pufendorf lectures – Patricia Churchland, June 2007

http://www.pufendorf.se/section.asp?id=1509

 

This interview with Patricia Churchland is an excerpt from a documentary film entitled "Mastermind" that was done by Sophie Besandoun and Pierre Faye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9I6BhXlrA

 

Closer to Truth – public television program

http://www.closertotruth.com/participants/pchurchland/index.html

 

Duke University – Provost’s Lecture Series 2007/08, Patricia Smith Churchland: Decisions, Morality and the Brain, Feb. 5, 2008

http://www.provost.duke.edu/speaker_series/

 

 

Return to Stony Brook Mind/Brain Lecture Series Home Page:

http://www.theswartzfoundation.org/research_c.asp 

 

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