[Sci-tech-public] FW: April 12: David Brooks, New York Times - "Politics, the Brain, and Human Nature"

[David Mindell]

Science and Democracy, a lecture series aimed at exploring both the promised
benefits or our era's most salient scientific and technological
breakthroughs and the potentially harmful consequences of developments that
are inadequately understood, debated, or managed by politicians, lay
publics, and policy institutions.

 

David Brooks

Columnist, The New York Times

 

"Politics, the Brain, & Human Nature"

 

With Panelists:

Max Bazerman, Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business
School

David Kennedy, Director, Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law
School

Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor, Department of Psychology

 

Moderated by
Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies,
Harvard Kennedy School

 

Tuesday, April 12

5:00 - 7:00 pm

 

Piper Auditorium

Gund Hall, GSD

48 Quincy Street

Harvard University

 

Abstract: For decades we have tried to increase high school graduation rates
and college completions rates. We've tried to reduce the achievement gaps.
We've tried to depolarize our economy and moderate the financial cycles.
These and many other public policy efforts have produced disappointing
results. This is in part because the policies were based on a partial view
of human nature and a simplistic view of human capital. Neuroscientific
research over the past few years has pointed toward a richer view, one in
which our emotions and unconscious play a far more important role in
everyday decision-making. It is time to apply the findings of science to the
world of policy, morality,  and practice. 

 

David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and a commentator on PBS
NewsHour. He has previously worked for the Washington Times, The Wall Street
Journal, The Weekly Standard, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, and National
Review. He has authored numerous books of cultural and political commentary,
the most recent of which, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love,
Character, and Achievement, was published in March 2011.

 

This event is organized by the Program on Science, Technology, and Society,
at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-sponsored by the School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, the Graduate School of Design, and the Harvard
University Center for the Environment.  For more information on Science,
Technology, and Society events at Harvard University, please visit:
www.ksg.harvard.edu/sts/. This lecture and discussion is free and open to
the public.

 

Contact:

Lisa Matthews

Events Coordinator

Harvard University Center for the Environment

 

24 Oxford Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

lisa_matthews at harvard.edu 

p. 617-495-8883

f. 617-496-0425

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