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Jeremy Craig, 404-413-1357
University Relations
ATLANTA — Daniel Dennett, a renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist at Tufts University, will give a lecture Feb. 7 at Georgia State University that focuses on the blending neuroscience and philosophy.
The lecture, entitled “My Brain Made Me Do It,” will be presented at 5:30 p.m. in the Speakers Auditorium of the Student Center, located at the intersection of Courtland and Gilmer streets in downtown Atlanta.
Dennett, the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts and co-director of the university’s Center for Cognitive Studies, is the author of numerous books and articles on human consciousness and free will.
He argues that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes in the brain. In his most recent book, “Breaking the Spell,” Dennett explored religious belief from a biological perspective.
“Dan Dennett has made groundbreaking advances in our understanding of the problems of consciousness and free will,” said Daniel Weiskopf, assistant professor of philosophy at GSU. “In terms of its range, importance, and influence on both philosophy and cognitive science, Dennett’s work is practically unparalleled.”
During his GSU lecture, he will speak on the responsibility of philosophers to help spark critical, careful thinking among neuroscientists as some have recently begun making public pronouncements about the implications of their research for free will and moral responsibility.
“I hope that people come away from his talks with a conviction that philosophers can make a real contribution to debates in the sciences, public policy, and the intellectual life of the culture at large,” Weiskopf said.
Georgia State has a large research program in the field of neuroscience. Through its Neuroscience Institute, a spinoff of the multi-institution Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, researchers and faculty members explore the mind and brain across multiple disciplines.
As part of Georgia State’s Neuroscience Institute, faculty members from the Department of Philosophy help to join their field with neuroscience in an area called neurophilosophy.
In what seems like an unusual pairing of fields, philosophers are making new inroads into the empirical study of philosophy, bringing life’s moral, ethical and existential questions into the realm of cognitive science.
For more about neurophilosophy, read http://www.cas.gsu.edu/storydetail.aspx?id=320.
For more about philosophy at Georgia State, visit http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwphi/index.html.
For more about GSU’s Neuroscience Institute, visit http://neuroscience.gsu.edu.
Published Jan. 24, 2011