Holy Cross Attracts Experts from Across the Globe for Neuroscience Conference

WORCESTER, Mass. – Some of the biggest names in brain science—Michael Gazzaniga, director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara; Patrick Haggard, professor of psychology at the University College of London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience; Marc Hauser, professor of psychology, organismic and evolutionary biology and biological anthropology at Harvard University; and many others—will come together for a two-day conference titled “Biological Foundations of Morality? Neuroscience, Evolution and Morality,” March 18-19 at the College of the Holy Cross. The public is invited to attend with preregistration at www.holycross.edu/crec. Space is limited.

The conference, sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, will consider the ethical implications of new science that suggests moral decision making may be fundamentally intuitive or emotional rather than reasoned. To the degree that the brain seems wired or designed to elicit certain basic moral responses, the notion of free will is radically open to debate.

“These scientists and thinkers are at the forefront of discovery in unraveling the biological process of moral decision making,” explains Thomas M. Landy, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, sponsor of the conference. “During the conference, we hope to sort out the potentially enormous implications for many Western ethical traditions.”

The conference will begin Thursday, March 18 with a keynote address, “Brains, Belief and Beyond,” by Gazzaniga. He is founder and president of the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. His scholarly publication The Cognitive Neurosciences III (MIT Press, 2004) is recognized as the sourcebook for the field. He has also published many books accessible to a lay audience, such as Mind Matters (Houghton Mifflin, 1998) and Nature's Mind (Basic Books, 1992), which, along with his participation in the public television specials The Brain and The Mind, have been instrumental in growing public interest and support for the study of the brain.

Other speakers include:

Patrick Haggard, professor of psychology at the University College of London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Robert Kane ‘60, a Holy Cross alumnus, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin and an authority on the concept of free will

Marc Hauser, professor of psychology, organismic and evolutionary biology and biological anthropology at Harvard University and co-director of the Mind, Brain and Behavior Program

Joshua Greene, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University and director of the Moral Cognition Lab

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Chauncey Stillman Professor in Practical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and previously professor of philosophy and Hardy Professor of Legal Studies at Dartmouth College

Anne Harrington, professor and chair of the History of Science at Harvard University, specializing in the history of psychiatry, neuroscience, and the other mind and behavioral sciences

James Blair, chief of the unit on Affective Cognitive Neuroscience in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the National Institute of Mental Health

Jeanette Kennett, professor of philosophy and the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science at Macquarie University, Australia

Stephen Pope, professor of theology at Boston College and author of The Evolution of Altruism and the Ordering of Love (Georgetown, 1994) and Human Evolution and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Rachana Kamtekar, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona, specializing in ancient moral and political philosophy and moral psychology, both contemporary and ancient

The conference is part of a series of programs celebrating science in the liberal arts and the College’s new state-of-the-art $63 million Integrated Science Complex. About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.