Emerging Minds: Seeking Meaning in a Physical World

Questions about the nature of our minds and identities have been posed for millennia. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, technological and scientific advances have enabled the ancient questions about mind and self to be revisited in new ways. The result of these cross-disciplinary studies has been the emergence of new perspectives on a wide range of issues including the relationship between the brain as an organ and the mind as a concept, the existence of a universal human nature, the production and appreciation of art, the boundaries of our free will, the goals of our health and education systems, and the extent to which our behavior is motivated by evolutionary imperatives. During the 2010-2011 academic year, Bucknell University will sponsor a colloquium that will explore some of these new approaches to the study of mind and brain, debate their impact and future implications, and bring some of the key scholars forging these new views to campus.

The speakers are:

For more information on the colloquium or individual speakers, contact the series coordinator, Joe Tranquillo.