Shadow

Alas, I won’t be able to attend this.

Symposium: "Emotions, Natural Selection and Rationality" Symposium

http://business.richmond.edu/news_events/current_events/3-21-09_Econ_Symposium.html

Date: 20-22 March, 2009

Place: University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia

The symposium focuses on how the emotions are related to morality, on one hand, and to rationality, on the other.  The recent discovery of the mirror neuron system, conceivably the basis of sympathetic emotions, highlights the biological basis of moral and rational behavior.  Adam Smith, 250 years ago, highlighted in his book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), how morality is ultimately based on sympathetic sentiments.  On the other hand, Charles Darwin stressed the biological basis of morality.  This symposium brings together scholars in economics, biology, psychology, and other disciplines to evaluate and debate these issues in light of recent discoveries in neuroscience.

Speakers:

Reinhard Selten, Department of Economic, University of Bonn (Nobel laureate of Economics, 1994) and Robin Pope, Department of Economics, University of Bonn, Title: TBA

Paul Zak, School of Politics and Economics, Claremont Graduate University, Title: "The Moral Molecule"

Kevin McCabe, Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, George Mason University, Title: "Two Neural Systems for Trust"

Daniel Houser, Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, George Mason University, Title: "Doing and Saying: Does Transparent Leadership Really Matter?"

David Haig, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Title: "On intrapersonal conflict"

Leonardo Fogassi, Department of Neurosciences, University of Parma, Italy, Title: The Mirror Neuron System: How Cognitive Functions Emerge from Motor Organization

Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Title: The Human Mirror Neuron System – from Actions to Morality

Elias Khalil, Department of Economics, University of Richmond and Monash University, Title: "The Mirror-Neuron Paradox: How Far is Sympathy from Compassion, Indulgence, and Adulation?"

Eric Schliesser, Department of Philosophy, Leiden University, Title: "On the Darwinian afterlife of The Smithian distinction between Natural and Moral Sentiments, and their rationality"

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