The Center for Cognition and Neuroethics 1st Annual Conference on: Reason, Reasons, and Reasoning

The theme should be interpreted broadly. Proposal topics may include, but are not limited to:

• What is it to reason? Is reasoning a single kind of activity or are there multiple modes of reasoning?
• How should we attempt to measure, evaluate and/or assess a person’s reasoning capacities? Or, should such attempts be abandoned?
• What, if anything, can the neurosciences tell us about reasoning processes or capacities? What are the social and cultural implications of basing our understanding of reasoning within a neurological framework?
• Are notions of reasoning culturally and historically specific?
• Are notions of reasoning normative or value-laden and, if so, how are those values realized?
• What legal, social, cultural policies and practices are affected by or driven by accepted notions of reasoning?
• What are the implications of being regarded as a person who reasons ineptly, defectively and/or pathologically?
• How does the capacity to reason connect with or substantiate a person’s sense of self or self-identity?
• What are the implications for one’s self-identity if one loses the capacity to reason?
• Can children reason? Do they have reason?
• What are the implications (social, legal, cultural) of presuming ourselves to be reasoning beings?

Submissions :

Submissions of abstracts (not exceeding 800 words) are invited for presentation of papers (not exceeding 3000 words). Please email your abstract as a Word.doc prepared for anonymous review. Please include your full contact information in the email only, including institutional affiliation, recent publications and positions, especially those relevant to the conference. We welcome proposals for panels; if you wish to submit a panel proposal, send all the abstracts of the panel participants and biographical information in one email and clearly indicate your preference for participating in a panel.

We welcome submissions from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, the social sciences, critical studies (including gender and sexuality studies, disability studies, race studies, and critical legal theory…), law, education, linguistics, the neurosciences, and the pharmaceutical and medical sciences as well as other disciplines and fields.

All submissions should be sent to the review coordinator, Dr. Jami L. Anderson, Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint, MI 48502-1950; anderson@cognethic.org

The deadline for proposal submission is October 1, 2012.

REGISTRATION

Our registration form is forthcoming. The registration form will be due 16 August 2013 and the registration fee will be due 13 September 2012.

The conference will be held at the Insight Institute of Neurosurgery & Neuroscience

The Center for Cognition and Neuroethics promotes both the exploration of the conceptual foundations of the neurosciences and the study of the implications of their advances for society in the legal, political, and ethical realms. The CCN will disseminate this knowledge to as wide an audience as possible through publications, seminars, and other media. We engage in activities across multiple disciplines and professions that allow opportunities for intellectual synergy and increased impact by creating, fostering and supporting research and educational collaborations and communication.