Скачать или смотреть CCEPA: Trust in New Sciences pt. 4 - Neurosciences and Explaining the Human - Dr. Cornelius Borck

MIND THE GAP: The Neurosciences and Their Determination to Explain the Human

MARCH 11, 2010 | MONTREAL
MARCH 18, 2010 | HALIFAX (reprise)

Understanding the brain and the biological basis of mind, consciousness and behaviour is the ultimate challenge. It stimulates researchers to look into the brain with ever more sophisticated technology such as functional neuroimaging. This colourful visualization of mental processes in the living human brain enthrals scientists and the public alike.

The neurosciences have made enormous progress over the last decades and provide ever more fascinating insights into our cognitive as well as emotional and social operations. While some hail this as the imminent advent of a definitive understanding of our mental apparatus, and conclude we should align our social institutions with forthcoming neuroscientific evidence, others warn against a brave new world of thought control, mind reading and manipulation.

Rather than debating the value of particular insights from the neurosciences, this talk will look at the incredible dynamics of pushing our theorizing about the mind in new directions, while opening more ways for intervening into the brain. Currently, nature and culture coalesce in this field of research without reducing one to the other. Are we witness to the opening of a new chapter in human evolution?

Keynote - Dr. Cornelius Borck - Professor and Director, Institute for the History of Medicine and Science Studies, University of LŸbeck, Germany