Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? Neuroscience, Emergence and Free Will

Speaker(s): Warren S. Brown
Date: Nov 2008
Length: 1:10:11
Product ID: RGDL3842C

Purchase Options:

MP3 Download - $5.00
CD - $10.00

Description

A Graduate and Faculty Christian Forum from the University of British Columbia. This lecture will summarize the neuroscience research on moral behavior and decision-making, and evaluate its implications for our understanding of free will and moral agency. Are our actions entirely determined bylow-level neural processes? Is body-soul dualism the only answer? Philosophical and theological resolution of these questions depends on our understanding of what is meant by emergence. Professor Brown will argue that the free-will problem is badly framed if it is put in terms of neurobiological determinism ('my neurons made me do it'); the real issue is neurobiological reductionism. Brown will bring together insights from both philosophy and the cognitive neurosciences to challenge various forms of neurobiological reductionism.

See All Audio by Warren S. Brown

Warren S. Brown PhD (University of Southern California) presently serves as director of the Travis Research Institute and professor of psychology at Fuller Theological in Pasedena, California where he has been since 1982. He was the recipient of a prestigious National Institute of Mental Health Research Career Development Award. His areas of expertise are Neuropsychology and Psychophysiology. Brown has authored or coauthored over 75 scholarly articles in such scientific journals as Neuropsychologia , Psychophysiology , Neurobiology of Aging , Biological Psychiatry , Developmental Neuropsychology , Cortex , and Science . He is also interested in philosophy, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and religious faith: in this vein, he is principal editor and contributor to Whatever Happened to the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature (1998) and wrote (with Nancey Murphy) Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will (2007).

Related Audio

Details / Buy

"Environment" or "Creation": A Scientific and Biblical Framework for Caring for the Earth

Speaker: Loren Wilkinson

Details / Buy

"Fingerprinting God": Perspectives on Creation, Evolution & Design

Speaker: Loren Wilkinson, Rikk Watts, Stephen Meyer, … (see details for all)

Details / Buy

Adam and the Genome: Rethinking the 'Historical' Adam

Speaker: Scot McKnight

Details / Buy

All Things New: God's Program of New Creation

Speaker: Douglas Moo

Details / Buy

Aquinas on Creation and Its Implications for Modern Science-Religion Dialogues

Speaker: Yonghua Ge

Details / Buy

Are We More Than Our Genes?

Speaker: Francis Collins

Details / Buy

Belief in God in an Age of Science

Speaker: Sir John Polkinghorne

Details / Buy

Beyond 'Design': Evolutionary Biology and a Theology of Preservation

Speaker: David Robinson, Loren Wilkinson

Details / Buy

Book Launch: Modern Technology and the Human Future

Speaker: Craig Gay

Details / Buy

Christian Theology & the Rise of Modern Science (CTC I Fall 2005)

Speaker: Paul Teel

Details / Buy

Christian Witness in the Sciences

Speaker: Walter Hearn

Details / Buy

Christianity: Science - Rock Garden Series

Speaker: Rikk Watts

Details / Buy

Creation, Christians & Modernity (Some Ambiguities of Science & Technology) (CTC Lecture)

Speaker: Loren Wilkinson

Details / Buy

Dare a Scientist Believe in Design

Speaker: Owen Gingerich

Details / Buy

Does Science Leave Room for God?

Speaker: Donald Mackay

Details / Buy

Echoes of Coinherence: Theology and Science in Conversation

Speaker: Ross Hastings

Details / Buy

Evening Public Lecture Series 2009

Speaker: Bern Wannenwetsch, Bruce Waltke, Cherith Fee … (see details for all)

Details / Buy

Evening Public Lecture Series 2010

Speaker: Bruce Marchfelder, Charles Ringma, David I. … (see details for all)

Details / Buy

Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution

Speaker: Denis O. Lamoureux

Details / Buy

Exposing Biblical Creation

Speaker: Hugh Ross

Details / Buy

God and the Multiverse

Speaker: Deborah Haarsma

Details / Buy

God's Agape/Probability Design of the Universe

Speaker: Chris Barrigar

Details / Buy

God, Science & the Meaning of Life: C. S. Lewis and Richard Dawkins.

Speaker: Alister McGrath, Arnold Sikkema, Dennis Danielson

Details / Buy

Human Origins in Light of Genesis 2

Speaker: John Walton

Details / Buy

If Humans are Inevitable, What Are the Theological Implications?

Speaker: Simon Conway Morris

Details / Buy

Inchoate Hope, The Spirit's Prayer

Speaker: David Robinson

Details / Buy

Is there a Future for 'Natural Theology'? Evolution, Cooperation, and the Question of God.

Speaker: Sarah Coakley

Details / Buy

Lunchtime Lecture: The Making of a Scientific Theologian

Speaker: Alister McGrath

Details / Buy

Man in Bible and Science

Speaker: Donald Mackay

Details / Buy

Monopolizing Knowledge: Scientism's Inconsistent Rejection of Faith

Speaker: Ian Hutchinson

Details / Buy

No Longer Under the Law? Love, Chance, and Necessity in Post-Newtonian Science

Speaker: Paul Teel

Details / Buy

Of Two Minds: A Neuroscientist Balances Science and Faith

Speaker: Bill Newsome

Details / Buy

Old Testament History & Archeology

Speaker: Donald Wiseman

Details / Buy

On Animals Volume II: The Challenge of Christian Animal Ethics

Speaker: Matthew Humphrey, David Clough

Details / Buy

Origins Today: Genesis Through Ancient Eyes

Speaker: John Walton

Details / Buy

Portraits of Human Nature: Scientific & Theological

Speaker: Malcolm Jeeves

Details / Buy

Re-enchanting the Universe: Evangelicals and the Rise of Science

Speaker: Bruce Hindmarsh, Amanda Russell-Jones

Details / Buy

Religion and the Rise of Science

Speaker: Peter Harrison

Details / Buy

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BROKEN BODY: RESPONDING TO THE PHYSICAL WORD OF THE SOUL

Speaker: Ashley Moyse

Details / Buy

Roundtable Talk: The Bible and the Emergence of Modern Science

Speaker: Bruce Hindmarsh, Peter Harrison

Details / Buy

Science and Christianity: Retrospect and Prospect

Speaker: David Livingston, Mark Noll

Details / Buy

Science and Faith: Conflicting or Enriching?

Speaker: Alister McGrath, Ross Hastings

Details / Buy

Science and Religion: Where the Conflict Really Lies

Speaker: Alvin Plantinga

Details / Buy

Science and Theology

Speaker: Sir John Polkinghorne

Details / Buy

Science, Existence, & Morality / Cosmos & Its Origin

Speaker: George Ellis

Details / Buy

Scientific Materialism Re-examined: Recent Discoveries Raise Important Questions

Speaker: Stephen Barr

Details / Buy

The Art of Living for a Technological Age

Speaker: Ashley Moyse

Details / Buy

The Battle for Darwin's Soul (2002 Murrin Lectures)

Speaker: David Livingstone

Details / Buy

The Battle for the Mind: Neuromarketing, Brainwashing & Transformation

Speaker: Bruce Winter