Conference Program
Morality, Moral Philosophy, and the Humanities in the Age of Neuroscience
November 17-20, 2016
ֱ State University Hotel and Conference Center | 215 South Depeyster Street, ֱ, Ohio
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2016
4:30-6:00 Registration
5:30-5:45 Welcome and Opening Remarks, Dix Room
Mark Bracher, Professor of English and Director, Neurocognitive Research Program for the Advancement of the Humanities (NRPAH), ֱ State University
James Blank, Professor of Biology and Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, ֱ State University
5:45-7:00 Keynote Address, Dix Room
“Human Morality: Features and Bugs,” Joshua Greene, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Introduction: Deborah Barnbaum, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, ֱ State University
7:00-9:00 Reception with Cash Bar
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
8:00-9:00 Continental Breakfast Buffet and Registration, Hotel Cafe
9:00-10:30 Panel, Dix Room
The Moral Self
Panel Chair: Janis Crowther
- "The Moral Self: A Philosophical Perspective,” Joshua August Skorburg
- "The Moral Self: A Social Psychological Perspective," Jim A.C. Everett
- "The Moral Self: A Social Neuroscientific Perspective," Jordan Livingston
- "The Moral Self: A Cognitive Neuroscientific Perspective,” Michael Ferguson
10:30-11:00 Break
11:00-12:00 Plenary Address, Dix Room
“Morality for Actual Lives,” Peggy DesAutels, Professor of Philosophy, University of Dayton
Introduction: Michael Byron, Professor of Philosophy, ֱ State University
12:00-1:00 Lunch, ֱ Room
1:00-2:30 Panels
A. Free Will, Cognitive Control, and Dual Processes, Dix Room
Panel Chair: Phillip Hamrick
- “Situating Emotions in a Dual-Process Account of Moral Judgment,” Daniel Shargel
- “The Neuroscience of Moral Responsibility,” Samuel Murray
- “Social Emotion and Moral Grammar: Two Sources of Moral Intuition,” Haoying Liu
B. Literature and Moral Development, McGilvrey Room
Panel Chair: Matthew Coate
- “Tragedy, Moral Responsibility, and the Neuroscience of Decisions,” David Palmer
- “Using Literary Emotion for Ethical Change,” Dana Munteanu
- “Human Bias in Ibsen’s Enemy of the People,” Todd O. Williams
2:30-3:00 Break
3:00-4:00 Plenary Address, Dix Room
“Implicit Moral Attitudes and their Philosophical Implications,” Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics, Duke University
Introduction: David Pereplyotchik, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, ֱ State University
4:00-4:30 Break
4:30-6:00 Panels
A. Morality, Self, and Society, Dix Room
Panel Chair: Gina Zavota
“Persuading Ourselves We’re Moral,” Ashton T. Sperry
“Using Ricoeur’s Phenomenology of the Capable Human Being as a Complementary Perspective to the Cognitive and Neuroscientific Findings on Morality,” Diane Laflamme
B. Normative Ethics, Metaethics, and Neuroscience, McGilvrey Room
Panel Chair: Michael Byron
- “What Should an Empirical Critique of Kantian Ethics Look Like?” Kevin Mills
- “Ethical Implications of Neuroscience: Realism without Rationalism,” Thomas Kiefer
- “Two Roles for Neurocognitive Science in Constitutivism,” Caleb Dewey
6:00-7:30 Reception with Cash Bar
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2016
8:00-9:00 Continental Breakfast Buffet and Registration, Hotel Cafe
9:00-10:15 Panels
A. Comeuppance: Nineteenth-Century Fiction and Neurocognitive Justice, Panel I, Dix Room
Panel Chair: Françoise Massardier-Kenney
- “Fairy Tales and Morality: Tales of Vulnerability,” Fritz Breithaupt
- “Moral Judgment and the Adultery Novel: How Stories Can Shape Side-Taking Decisions,” Brian Tucker
- “The Unknowable Baron: Alterity and Moral Trust in Social-Critical Realism,” Jenny Strakovsky
B. The Cognitive Bases of Moral Decision-Making, McGilvrey Room
Panel Chair: Murali Shanker
- “Professional Ethical Identity and Decision-Making in Experts Versus Novices,” Morgan Kiper Riechel
- “Can Improving Episodic Cognition Make Us Better Moral Judges?” Nathan Stout
- “Facts as Determinants for Morality: How Human Action, Reason, Cognition, and Social Activity Determine What We Ought to Do,” Michael S. Dauber
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:30 Plenary Address, Dix Room
“Embodied Wisdom: Human Nature and Human Potential,” Darcia Narvaez, Professor of Psychology, University of Notre Dame
Introduction: Jon A. Sefcek, Assistant Professor of Psychology, ֱ State University
11:30-12:00 Break
12:00-1:00 Plenary Address, Dix Room
“The Logic of Communities of Trust,” Mark Alfano, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Delft University of Technology
Introduction: Susan Roxburgh, Professor of Sociology, ֱ State University
1:00-2:00 Lunch, ֱ Room
2:00-3:15 Panels
A. Neuroscience or Not? The Psycho-Biological Origins of Morality, Dix Room
Panel Chair: Joshua Pollock
- “Locating the Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience,” Thomas Noah
- “Fetal Origins of the Moral Self: Vestibular Experiences,” Azucena Verdin
B. Moral Education and Ethical Praxis, McGilvrey Room
Panel Chair: Frank Scalambrino
- “Moral Education and Personality: Practicing Virtues in Childhood,” Maria Judith Sucupira de Costa Lins and Carla Christina Silveira Sousa
- “Increases in Empathy and Theory of Mind after a Middle School Reading Unit Vary with Gender, Book and Format,” Louise Freeman
- “The Methodological Pursuit of Lived Experience,” Sara J. Newman, Elizabeth Tomlinson, and Ya’el Courtney
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-4:30 Plenary Address, Dix Room
“Adventures in Story Science: The Ethical Function of Literature in an Experimental Age,” Angus Fletcher, Associate Professor of English, Ohio State University
Introduction: Tammy Clewell, Professor of English, ֱ State University
4:30-5:00 Break
5:00-6:00 Panels
A. Morality, Sociality, and Evolution, Dix Room
Panel Chair: TBA
- “Is It Good to Cooperate? Testing the Theory of Morality-as-Cooperation in 60 Societies,” Oliver Scott Curry, Daniel Austin Mullins, and Harvey Whitehouse
- “Gossip: Social Intelligence and Evolutionary Origins,” Brian Robinson
B. Comeuppance: Nineteenth-Century Fiction and Neurocognitive Justice, Panel II, McGilvrey Room
Panel Chair: Maryanne DeJulio
- “Transnationalism and Infidelity: Morality and the Nation,” John Lyon
- “How MacGuffins Work: Justice, Truth, and Satisfaction in George Sluizer's The Vanishing,” William Flesch
6:00-7:00 Reception with Cash Bar
7:00-9:00 Banquet, ֱ Room
Banquet Address
"On Philosophy and Social Science: Virtue as Social Intelligence and Beyond,"
Nancy E. Snow, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing, University of Oklahoma
Introduction: Mark Bracher, Professor of English and Director, Neurocognitive Research Program for the Advancement of the Humanities (NRPAH), ֱ State University
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2016
8:00-9:00 Continental Breakfast Buffet
9:00-10:00 Panel, Dix Room
Trolley Problems, Moral Judgment, and Moral Experimentation
Panel Chair: David Pereplyotchik
- “Beyond Emotional Deontology—Emotional Focus and Cognitive Orientations Conjointly Shape Moral Judgments,” Johannes T. Doerflinger and Peter M. Gollwitzer
- “Let a Thousand Methods Bloom: On the Neuroscience of Moral Judgment and the Reverse Inference Problem,” Brett Karlan
10:00-10:30 Break
10:30-11:30 Plenary Address, Dix Room
"Gratitude, Giving, and Gray Matter. Altruism in a Changing Brain." Christina Karns, Research Associate, Brain Development Lab, University of Oregon
Introduction: Ernest Freeman, Professor and Director, Biomedical Sciences Program, ֱ State University
11:30-12:30 Round Table Wrap Up, Dix Room
12:30 Box Lunch, ֱ Room