[Sci-tech-public] Harvard STS Circle (Feb 13, Wednesday) - RSVP

[Debbie Meinbresse]

>Please note that next week's STS Circle meeting will take place on 
>Wednesday, Feb. 13, from 12:00-2:00 pm, at Room 469, Science Center, 
>1 Oxford Street. Please RSVP to 
><mailto:sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu>sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu 
>by Feb. 10 (Sunday).
>
>================================================
>
>
>STS Circle at Harvard: February 13 (Wednesday), 2008
>
>
>Evolving a Moral Grammar: Domain-specificity,
>Origins, Universality and Moral Organs
>
>
>Mark Hauser
>(Department of Psychology, Harvard University)
>
>
>12:00-2:00 pm at Room 469, Science Center, 1 Oxford Street
>
>
>Abstract:
>How do you decide what is morally right and wrong?  Historically, 
>there have been two answers to this question.  On the one hand, we 
>deliver moral judgments on the basis of a rational, conscious, and 
>deliberate process of accessing principles to justify our 
>actions.  On the other hand, our judgments are the result of 
>intuitions mediated by emotions.  Though these two processes 
>certainly play some role in our moral deliberations, each suffers 
>from a set of critical problems.  I offer a solution: by appealing 
>to an analogy to language, I argue that humans are endowed with a 
>universal moral grammar that generates intuitive judgments of right 
>and wrong based on an inaccessible code of action.  I present 
>evidence from a large scale study of the internet with over 200,000 
>subjects, together with work on small scale societies, to justify a 
>dissociation between judgments and justifications, and to reveal a 
>set of core principles that appear immune to cultural influences, 
>including religious background.  I also present results from studies 
>of brain damaged patients, neuroimaging, and brain stimulation to 
>reveal the architecture of our moral organ.
>
>Biography:
>Marc Hauser is Professor of Psychology, Organismic and Evolutionary 
>Biology, and Biological Anthropology at Harvard University, where he 
>is director of the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory and co-director of 
>the Mind, Brain and Behavior Program.  His research focuses on the 
>evolutionary and developmental foundations of the human mind, with 
>the specific goal of understanding which mental capacities are 
>shared with other nonhuman primates and which are uniquely 
>human.  Dr. Hauser's previous books include The Evolution of 
>Communication (MIT); Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think (Henry 
>Holt); and The Design of Animal Communication (with Mark Konishi) 
>(MIT).  His most recent book, Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our 
>Universal Sense of Right and Wrong, is published by HarperCollins.
>
>================================================
>
>For more information about the Harvard STS circle, please visit our 
>website at: 
><http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sts/events/weeklymeeting.htm>http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sts/events/weeklymeeting.htm 
>
>or e-mail to: 
><mailto:sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu>sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu 
>or <mailto:jhurlbut at fas.harvard.edu>jhurlbut at fas.harvard.edu.
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