The Law and Neuroscience Blog

Around the Web

I apologize for the sparse posting as of late, but I recently made a cross-country move.  Hopefully, now that I am settled in, I can get back to posting more regularly.  That being said, here is the latest installment of Around the Web:

1. Guardian has a piece on neuroenhancement, smart drugs, and students.
2. Scientific American has a wonderful piece by John Horgan about the role the Penatgon/DoD plays in funding neuroscience.
3. Adam Kolber has a great post over at the Neuroethics and Law Blog about what he call's "fractional parents."  See here for a recent follow-up post.
4. Neuroethics at the Core has a nice review of the fascinating research being done by Liane Young and Rebecca Saxe on moral judgments. See here for their most recent paper.
5. Science Daily has a nice piece on bionic eyes and another on the neural relationship between empathy and violence.
6. New Scientist has a piece on chimp intuitions/judgments about fairness.
7. Neuronarrative has three interesting posts: (a) a post about photographs and "false" memory, (b) another about testosterone and the power of belief, and (c) one about what makes us human.

 As always, happy reading!

Workshops on Moral Agency, Deliberative Awareness, and Conscious Control

Amy Wouters has asked me to post an announcement for the followings series of workshops in the Netherlands:

Three workshops on Moral Agency, Deliberative Awareness, and Conscious Control

Department of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Friday and Saturday 15–16 October 2010: Strawsonian and Consequentialist Views on Personal Responsibility

Friday and Saturday 16–17 September 2011: Everyday Reason Talk

Friday and Saturday 8-9 June 2012: Narrativity, interpretation and responsibility

Workshop on Moral Biology

Conference: April 15 & 16 (2010):

Along with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, the Gruter Institute, and the MacArthur project on law and neuroscience, the Project on Law and Mind Sciences is hosting two-day conference entitled "Moral Biology?: What Can Biology and the Mind Sciences Teach Us about Law and Morality?"

The conference will examine what relevance developments in the mind sciences and evolutionary biology may have for moral and legal reasoning about responsibility, punishment, racism, cooperation, and addiction.  The event features a public panel open to all (taking place on Thursday April 15 at 5:30 PM at Harvard Law School) as well as several closed-door sessions.  I've attached the nearly final agenda.

There are a small number of spaces available for the closed portions of the conference.  If you would like to attend the conference or any of those sessions, please let me know.  I will do everything I can to make certain that you are added to the attendance list.  However, to do that, I unfortunately need to hear from you before this Wednesday  (04/07) at noon.  Contact Jon Hanson for more information.