The New York Institute of Technology
School of Arts and Sciences
and
The Long Island Philosophical Society
Glenn Statile, St. John’s UniversityJohn F. DeCarlo, Hofstra University
Margaret Cuonzo, Long Island UniversityEugene Kelly, New York Institute of Technology
Values, Morals, and Science:An Interdisciplinary Conference
At the New York Institute of Technology
De Seversky Center, Old Westbury
Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2015
9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Lunch will be served both days.
Registration at the door: $20.00
Since at least 1975, when Edward O. Wilson published Sociobiology, biologists, anthropologists, neurobiologists, evolutionary theorists and psychologists have attempted to harness their science to what had been the exclusive domain of philosophy and political theory: questions of the origin, nature, and function of values, specifically, of moral values.
Under attack is the assumption of most philosophers that moral arguments and judgments are the outcomes of rational processes that are perhaps influenced but not fully determined by sociological and/or psychological forces. Sciences such as sociology and anthropology have begun to make the case for our viewing moral judgments not only as influenced by factors having to do with the evolving culture and local social environment of those who make the judgments, but as causally determinedby those factors.
A further challenge to philosophical ethics is posed by studies of the human brain. Attempts have been made to show that an adaptive process is responsible for the development of permanent neurological structures in the human brain that predispose agents to certain types of moral and other normativeresponses.
Given this complex and broadening situation, participants from disciplines including biology, neuroscience, philosophy, economics, and psychology are invited to examine Issues relevant to critically assessing the claim that normative reasoning is predominantly empirically rather than cognitively determined.
Schedule of Speakers
Friday09:15 - 09:30 / Opening
09:30 - 10:30 / Jay Van Bavel, Psychology, NYU: Beyond Intuition and Reason: A Dynamic Model of Moral Cognition.
10:30 - 11:00 / Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:00 / Regina A Rini, NYU Center for Bioethics: What is the ‘Neuro’ in Neuroethics?
12:00 - 13:00 / Lunch
13:00 - 14:00 / TziporahKasachkoff, Philosophy, Ben Gurion University, Yakir Levin, Ben Gurion University, and ItzhakAharon, IDC Israel: Morality, Meta-Ethics, and the Scope of Evolutionary Psychology
14:00 -15 :00 / Oriel Feldman Hall, NYU, Psychology: The Cognitive Mechanisms of Prosocial Choice
Saturday
09:30 - 10:30 / Diana Reiss, Hunter College, Biopsychology: Dolphin and Elephant Minds and Human Morals
10:30 - 11:00 / Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:00 / EdouardMachery, Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh: Religion and the Scope of the Moral Domain
12:00 -13:00 / Lunch
13:00 -14:00 / Rosamond Rhodes, Director, Bioethics Education, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York: Values and Values in Ethics and Biomedical Research
14:00 - 15:00 / James Cornwell, Psychology, Columbia University: Motivational Framing and the Use of Intuitions or Reasons in Moral Judgments