If you are in New York City on Friday, Sept. 11, consider spending the day being mindful of morality. The United Nations will play host to a free all-day conference, open to those who pre-register and sponsored by the Nour Foundation, Georgetown University, and Blackfriars Hall at Oxford University, called “Toward a Common Morality.”
It’s the last of a three-part traveling forum that started in May at Georgetown
University in Washington, D.C., with “The Paradox of Neurotechnology,” which discussed how people are using new neurotechnologies for treatment and enhancement and whether that might alter what it means to be a human being. In July at Oxford University, “Brain, Mind, and the Nature of Being” explored how neuroscience theories might adapt to encompass the development of a “holistic concept of a human person.”
In New York, the topic will be human subjective experience, including what neuroscience and psychology can tell us about how experience affects our reasoning and morality. One of the presenters is Donald Pfaff, whose Dana Press book THE NEUROSCIENCE OF FAIR PLAY is recommended reading for the conference. Other speakers include Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania and Andrew Newberg, author of the new book HOW GOD CHANGES YOUR BRAIN: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist.
According to conference organizers, one goal of the events is use science to promote a sense of unity and cooperation, a member of the organizing committee says. I’m intrigued by the proposed discussion of morality and ethics as part of “core human ecology,” so you may see me there.
[a version of this post also appears on the Dana Press blog. See more good stuff there.]
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