Wednesday 25 September, 7.00pm until 8.30pm, Jessop West, 1 Upper Hanover Street, Sheffield S3 7RA UK Satellite Events 2013
Tickets: £5/3 via sheffieldsalon.org.uk
Why do people act like they do? Addiction, crime and antisocial behaviour were traditionally understood as having their roots either in moral failings or social forces, depending on your point of view. But new insights neuroscience and evolutionary psychology are beginning to challenge these ideas.
New studies aren’t just providing insights into areas like addiction, but suggesting a scientific basis for everything from sexual preferences to political views. These ideas are becoming influential in government – the Allen Report into ‘early intervention’, heralded by Iain Duncan Smith, has claimed to set out the science behind antisocial behaviour. Nature seems to trump nurture.
But where does this leave free will and individual autonomy? Can anyone be said to be responsible for their actions if they are predicted by neuroscience? Are we nothing more than our ‘hard wiring’ or are we still able to make choices despite our conditioning?
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James Lenman
professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Sheffield |
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Peter Redgrave
professor of neuroscience, University of Sheffield |
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Tom Stafford
lecturer, psychology and cognitive science, University of Sheffield; columnist, BBC Future; co-author, Mind Hacks |
| Chair: | |
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Dr Frankie Anderson
psychiatry trainee; co-founder, Sheffield Salon |
Cambridge University scientists reveal changes in brain for compulsive porn users which don't occur in those with no such habit
Adam Withnall, Independent, 22 September 2013
Psychiatrist Sally Satel says the belief that neuroscience will offer some grand unified theory of human consciousness is a
National Post, 20 September 2013
Long before he brought people into his laboratory at Columbia University to smoke crack cocaine, Carl Hart saw its effects firsthand. Growing up in poverty, he watched relatives become crack addicts.
John Tierney, Telegraph, 16 September 2013
Ignore the neuro-determinists: man is more than a machine
Stuart Derbyshire, spiked, 5 August 2013
Science has replaced Fortuna in fancying itself as the revealer of men's fates.
Brendan O’Neill, spiked, 8 July 2013High and low culture: separated at birth?
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