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Social Trends Institute, Barcelona - New York

Is Science Compatible with Our Desire for Freedom?

Is Science Compatible with Our Desire for Freedom?

Barcelona, Spain | October 28-30, 2010



Meeting Summary:

When faced with a conflict between human freedom and a deterministic neuroscience, two rational positions are possible: either human freedom is an illusion, or deterministic neuroscience is not the last word about the brain and will eventually be superseded by a neuroscience admitting processes not completely determined by the past. Accordingly, this Experts Meeting aims to investigate whether it is possible to have a science in which there is room for human freedom, and in particular whether today’s quantum physics might offer an appropriate framework for this purpose. 

Principal Inquiries:
• Does today’s quantum physics offer a framework that might be capable of coping with free will and other non-material principles?
• Is there room in today’s biology and neuroscience for free will, personal identity, self-consciousness, and religious experiences?
• Does deterministic science rule out the possibility of moral and legal responsibility?

Confirmed Participants:


Speakers:

(Session 1)
Leonardo Fogassi (& Giacomo Rizzolatti) - University of Parma
The Mirror Mechanism as Neurophysiological Basis for Interpersonal Communication

Susan Greenfield - Oxford University
Can Neuroscience Explain or Refute Free Will and Personal Identity?

Flavio Keller - Università Campus Bio-Medico Di Roma
Contemporary Concepts of Motor Control: Is There a Place for Free Will?

Martin Heisenberg - University of Würzburg
The Role of Objective Chance in the Brain and Behaviour

José Manuel Giménez Amaya - Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Neuroscience and Freedom 

(Session 2)
Gilles Brassard - Université de Montréal
Can Free Will Emerge from Determinism in Quantum Theory?

Nicolas Gisin - Université de Genève
Are There Quantum Effects Coming from Outside Space-time? Nonlocality, Free Will and ”no Many-Worlds”

Zeeya Merali - Freelance Science Writer
Are Humans the Only Free Agents in the Universe?

Atonio Acín - The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO)
True Quantum Randomness

Antoine Suarez - Center for Quantum Philosophy
Does Free Will Require New Physics?

(Session 3)
Bob Doyle - Harvard University
The Two-Stage Solution to the Problem of Free Will

Luís Cabral
- IESE Business School
Are the Laws of Economics Compatible with Free Will?

Alfred Mele - Florida State University
Effective Intentions: The Power of Conscious Will

Robert Kane - University of Texas
Can a Traditional Incompatibilist or Libertarian Free Will Be Made Consistent With Modern Science? Steps Toward a Positive Answer

Jean Staune - Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris
Towards a Non-materialist Realism

Moderator: 

Peter Adams - Thomas More Institute

Discussants:

Franz Heukamp 
- IESE Business School
Maciej Lewenstein - The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO)
Jack Valero - Thomas More Institute

Assistants:

Nicholas Teh
- Cambridge University
Russell Wilcox - Thomas More Institute


For more information please e-mail info@socialtrendsinstitute.org
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