On March 16, 2012 a special one-day symposium entitled "Neuroscience and Neuroethics: Considering Nature, Nurture and Norms" was convened at the Potomac Institute in Arlington, Virginia. The event was sponsored jointly by Institute for Science and Human Values (ISHV) and the Center for Neurotechnology Studies at the Potomac Institute. Symposium attendees were treated to cutting edge presentations of a uniformly high quality on topics ranging from free will, to natural moral intuition, to the ethical dilemmas raised by the implementations of certain neuro-scientific technologies. Science writer Ronald Bailey wrote a detailed report about the symposium called “How Does the Brain Secrete Morality?” on the Reason Magazine Website.
“We are proud to have played a significant role in organizing this important event,” said Paul Kurtz, chairman and founder of ISHV. “We believe that the meeting made a valuable contribution the cultural conversation surrounding neuroscience and human well-being. Our plan is to disseminate the fruits of this gathering to all educated laypersons with an interest in the topic.” With this goal in mind, the meeting was broadcast live the day of the event via Internet streaming, and selected material from the symposium will be published in The Human Prospect, the quarterly journal of the Institute for Sciences and Human Values. Additionally, a special volume on the topic of neuroscience and ethics, which will include select papers from this event, will be published by our sister organization Prometheus Books.
The complete presentation (over six hours long) is now available on video. After some brief introductory comments from James Giordano and ISHV leader Stuart Jordan the event begins in earnest.
Featured speakers include:
Gregory Berns PhD
Emory University
"Neural Mechanisms of Values"
William Casebeer PhD
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
"Will, Narrative and Personal Responsibility"
Patricia Churchland PhD
University of California San Diego
"What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality"
James Giordano PhD
Center for Neurotechnology Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
University of New Mexico
University of Oxford
Symposium Chair
"Neuroethics as Meta-ethics: Avoiding Icarus' Folly"
Eric Racine PhD
Neuroethics Research Unit , Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM)
"Neuroimaging and the Values of Neuroscience"
John Shook PhD
University of Buffalo
"The New Ethics of Neuroethics"
