News

Education Brings Equality, and More Wisdom from the Dalai Lama

brendah — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:44:00 GMT

by Jay London on October 15, 2012

in Events, In the News, Learning, Public Service

Commemorating the three-year anniversary of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, the Dalai Lama returned to Cambridge and Boston to discuss religion’s role in compassion and spirituality, and how religion intersects with science.

On Oct. 14, His Holiness delivered a talk, “Beyond Religion: Ethics, Values, & Wellbeing.” Moderated by longtime Boston news anchor Rev. Liz Walker, the talk featured responses from theologians Fr. Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk from Colorado, and Br. David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk from New York City.

“‘Beyond Religion’ doesn’t mean that something is better than religion,” he says. “It means relying not just on faith, but on all religious traditions, with an emphasis on love, forgiveness, and compassion.”

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The Amygdala Made Me Do It

agomberg — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:55:00 GMT

By James Atlas, The New York Times

Why are we thinking so much about thinking these days? Near the top of best-seller lists around the country, you’ll find Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” followed by Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business,” and somewhere in the middle, where it’s held its ground for several months, Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” Recently arrived is “Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior,” by Leonard Mlodinow. It’s the invasion of the Can’t-Help-Yourself books.

Unlike most pop self-help books, these are about life as we know it — the one you can change, but only a little, and with a ton of work. Professor Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in economic science a decade ago, has synthesized a lifetime’s research in neurobiology, economics and psychology. “Thinking, Fast and Slow” goes to the heart of the matter: How aware are we of the invisible forces of brain chemistry, social cues and temperament that determine how we think and act? Has the concept of free will gone out the window?

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Unraveling Virtues

agomberg — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:36:00 GMT

By Greg Borzo, UChicago News

An excerpt: That the new study of virtues has come to embrace a systematic, organized body of knowledge was evident at the third annual conference of the New Science of Virtues project at the University of Chicago, March 14-16, 2012.

“The rigorous scientific method can be applied to the study of virtues, embracing both empirical and theoretical approaches,” said Jean Bethke Elshtain, head of the project and professor of social and political ethics at the University. “In addition, it lends itself to a rare degree of multidisciplinary research.” Indeed, the project engaged philosophers, economists, psychologists, neurobiologists, theologians, physicians, political scientists, historians and other specialists working together.

The project was funded by a $4.2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports discovery in fields that engage life’s biggest questions.

“We came to the University of Chicago and said, ‘Help us find the best talent to explore how the study of virtues fits into academic discourse and research,’ and Arete put together this project, engaging scholars from around the country,” said Barnaby Marsh, executive vice president of strategic initiatives for the Foundation.

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Photo: Beth Rooney.

This is Your Brain on No Self Control

agomberg — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:27:00 GMT

From Science Daily

An excerpt: A study by University of Iowa neuroscientist and neuro-marketing expert William Hedgcock confirms previous studies that show self-control is a finite commodity that is depleted by use. Once the pool has dried up, we're less likely to keep our cool the next time we're faced with a situation that requires self-control.

But Hedgcock's study is the first to actually show it happening in the brain using fMRI images that scan people as they perform self-control tasks. The images show the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) -- the part of the brain that recognizes a situation in which self-control is needed and says, "Heads up, there are multiple responses to this situation and some might not be good" -- fires with equal intensity throughout the task.

However, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) -- the part of the brain that manages self-control and says, "I really want to do the dumb thing, but I should overcome that impulse and do the smart thing" -- fires with less intensity after prior exertion of self-control.

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Why Won't They Listen?

agomberg — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:51:00 GMT

By William Saletan, The New York Times

An excerpt: In “The Righteous Mind,” Haidt seeks to enrich liberalism, and political discourse generally, with a deeper awareness of human nature. Like other psychologists who have ventured into political coaching, such as George Lakoff and Drew Westen, Haidt argues that people are fundamentally intuitive, not rational. If you want to persuade others, you have to appeal to their sentiments. But Haidt is looking for more than victory. He’s looking for wisdom. That’s what makes “The Righteous Mind” well worth reading. Politics isn’t just about manipulating people who disagree with you. It’s about learning from them.

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Notes on Virtue

agomberg — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:47:00 GMT

By Peter Lawler, The Big Think

An excerpt: So we've basically completed our two-year series of conferences, publications, and such at Berry College funded by a grant from the Science of Virtues project at the University of Chicago. My concluding presentation—following directions—is about saying what we (co-investigator Marc Guerra and myself) think virtue is. This is, of course, meant only to be the roughest sketch of the key issues in the form of talking points, with something to offend everyone:

What is VIRTUE?

Aristotle: Knowledge of MORAL VIRTUE is IMPRECISE. More than RHETORIC (or PERSUASIVE BALONEY). Less precise or certain than MATHEMATICS. Definitions will be imprecise or admit of exceptions. The problem of measurement goes with the territory.

Virtue is the action that flows from knowing: 1. Who we are. 2. What we’re supposed to do.

Doing, as Aristotle says, doesn’t flow automatically from knowing. But doing presupposes knowing. The conditions of knowing aren’t mainly about theory or philosophy. Knowing involves habituation. Knowing also involves “class” (in the sense of being “classy”) or knowing your place in the world. We’re the beings open to the truth and compelled to live morally demanding lives. We’re stuck with virtue. That means in some sense we’re stuck with courage—or having the guts to act in response to what we can’t help but know.

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Choosing the Good: An Interactive Museum Experience

agomberg — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:56:00 GMT

By Luci Scott, AZ Central News

Imagine you're riding in a car with a friend who is speeding and the car hits a pedestrian. You're the only witness, and the friend's lawyer asks you to testify that your friend was not at fault. Do you help your friend or tell the truth?

This is one of many dilemmas visitors are asked to decide in a new interactive exhibit at the Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology.

The free exhibit, "Choosing the Good," is based on research led by Daniel Hruschka, assistant professor in anthropology at ASU.

"Normally when we think of tough choices, we might imagine ... an angel on one shoulder as a good choice and a devil on the other shoulder as the bad choice," Hruschka said.

"But many decisions we make in everyday life involve two angels, two goods, two ways of being nice."

The exhibit poses many choices between two good but difficult choices.

Visitors can compare their decisions with those of previous museum visitors and of people at eight research sites in six countries: the United States, Bangladesh, Fiji, Bolivia, China and Iceland.

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Laurie Santos and the Hard Science of Monkey Business

agomberg — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:51:00 GMT

By Amy Dockser Marcus, Wall Street Journal online

Some scientists find inspiration in the lab. Others trek into the field. Laurie Santos likes the local coffee house.

The 36-year-old runs Yale University's Comparative Cognition Laboratory, which examines the origins of the human mind by studying primate cognition. Many of her experiments try to determine the roots of human economic behavior.

For a close-up view, she frequents Koffe?, a local hangout that is walking distance from her office. She arrives at 7 a.m., just as it opens. Sipping a small coffee with milk, she flips open her laptop, works on papers, then starts brainstorming "about the next thing" to test. She doesn't have to wait long for inspiration. The regulars soon drift in: construction workers, the crew from the fire house, professors rushing to class, students gossiping about last night's party. She calls herself "a fascinated observer of human behavior," and a wide range of it is on display.

The primate lab is home to 10 "shockingly smart" brown Capuchin monkeys trained to trade tokens for food. It was a short leap for Dr. Santos and her team to decide to study how monkeys make decisions about money.

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Virtuous Behaviors Sanction Later Sins

agomberg — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:06:00 GMT

By Ashley Welch, Scientific American

Anyone who has ever devoured a triple-chocolate brownie after an intense workout knows how tempting it can be to indulge after behaving virtuously. A new study suggests, however, that we often apply this thought process to inappropriate scenarios, giving ourselves license to act in unhealthy or antisocial ways.

Researchers in Taiwan gave a sugar pill to 74 smokers, misleading half of them to think it was a vitamin C supplement. All the participants then took an unrelated survey and were told they could smoke if they desired. Those who believed they had taken a vitamin smoked twice as many cigarettes as those who knew they had taken a placebo. According to study co-author Wen-Bin Chiou of National Sun Yat-Sen University, the participants may have felt, consciously or unconsciously, that the healthy activity entitled them to partake, a concept known as the licensing effect.

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Why We Have Moral Rules, But Don't Follow Them

agomberg — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:25:00 GMT

From New Scientist

WHY do we sometimes wrestle with moral dilemmas? A twist on a classic psychology experiment suggests that our minds have two parallel moral systems, and they don't always agree.

In the trolley experiment, participants are told that a runaway tram trolley could kill five people on the tracks. They must decide whether to divert it onto a second track with only one person on it. Almost everyone diverts it, sacrificing one to save five.

But if instead you have to push one person off a bridge onto the track to stop the trolley, most people demur. That suggests most of us have a strict rule against killing people directly, even for the greater good.

How are such rules formed? Although moral codes appear to rule out the act of killing in the bridge experiment, most moral behaviour in animals appears focused on outcomes - the death of an individual, say - rather than the act that brought it about. When an animal experiences harm to help a relative, evolutionary biologists view this as increasing the chances that copies of the animal's genes will survive. Many psychologists think that human moral rules are an extension of this "kin selection".

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The Yuck Factor Explained

agomberg — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:17:00 GMT

By Tiffanny O'Callaghan, in The New Scientist

Disgust can be a bewildering emotion. In her new book, That's Disgusting, research psychologist Rachel Herz points out that our tendency to react by pulling away is based on a combination of self-preservation and learned behaviour.

When we are grossed out we all make the same face: opening the mouth, pulling back the upper lip, wrinkling the nose, even sticking out the tongue. But what causes us to sneer with disgust differs.

When you grow up eating fermented animal products you may consider them delicious, but if you weren't raised munching Stilton cheese it can be gag-inducing stuff. Hákarl - shark meat decomposed underground - is a delicacy in some Icelandic cultures, but to many outsiders the idea of eating it is repugnant.

Most alarming, though, is when our tendency toward disease avoidance is conflated with moral repugnance. Herz points out that during the Holocaust and the Rwandan Tutsi massacre in 1994, the victims were cast as disease-ridden vermin. "The 'final solution' is frighteningly simple," Herz writes. "If you want to make a group despicable and justify murdering them, equate them with disease and disgust."

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Jailbreak Rat: Selfless Rodents Spring Their Pals and Share Their Sweets

agomberg — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:06:00 GMT

By Ferris Jabr, Scientific American

An excerpt: The English language is not especially kind to rats. We say we "smell a rat" when something doesn't feel right, refer to stressful competition as the "rat race," and scorn traitors who "rat on" friends. But rats don't deserve their bad rap. According to a new study in the December 9 issue of Science, rats are surprisingly selfless, consistently breaking friends out of cages—even if freeing their buddies means having to share coveted chocolate. It seems that empathy and self-sacrifice have a greater evolutionary legacy than anyone expected.

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Photo courtesy of the Mason Lab/University of Chicago. (Photo by Megan Doherty.)

The Future of Moral Machines

agomberg — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:23:00 GMT

By Colin Allen, New York Times

A robot walks into a bar and says, “I’ll have a screwdriver.” A bad joke, indeed. But even less funny if the robot says “Give me what’s in your cash register.”

The fictional theme of robots turning against humans is older than the word itself, which first appeared in the title of Karel Čapek’s 1920 play about artificial factory workers rising against their human overlords. Just 22 years later, Isaac Asimov invented the “Three Laws of Robotics” to serve as a hierarchical ethical code for the robots in his stories: first, never harm a human being through action or inaction; second, obey human orders; last, protect oneself. From the first story in which the laws appeared, Asimov explored their inherent contradictions. Great fiction, but unworkable theory.

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Human Nature’s Pathologist

agomberg — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:10:00 GMT

By Carl Zimmer, New York Times

Steven Pinker was a 15-year-old anarchist. He didn’t think people needed a police force to keep the peace. Governments caused the very problems they were supposed to solve. Besides, it was 1969, said Dr. Pinker, who is now a 57-year-old psychologist at Harvard. “If you weren’t an anarchist,” he said, “you couldn’t get a date.”

At the dinner table, he argued with his parents about human nature. “They said, ‘What would happen if there were no police?’ ” he recalled. “I said: ‘What would we do? Would we rob banks? Of course not. Police make no difference.’ ”

This was in Montreal, “a city that prided itself on civility and low rates of crime,” he said. Then, on Oct. 17, 1969, police officers and firefighters went on strike, and he had a chance to test his first hypothesis about human nature.

“All hell broke loose,” Dr. Pinker recalled. “Within a few hours there was looting. There were riots. There was arson. There were two murders. And this was in the morning that they called the strike.”

The ’60s changed the lives of many people and, in Dr. Pinker’s case, left him deeply curious about how humans work. That curiosity turned into a career as a leading expert on language, and then as a leading advocate of evolutionary psychology. In a series of best-selling books, he has argued that our mental faculties — from emotions to decision-making to visual cognition — were forged by natural selection.

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Program for Youth Mentoring Through Literature Gains County Support

agomberg — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:46:00 GMT

By Bill Schmitt, ND Newswire

Reading for Life, an innovative literature-based mentoring program that provides an alternative to prosecution for low-risk juvenile offenders, was recently awarded county funding to sustain its operation in St. Joseph County, Ind. With the unanimous approval of the county council and commissioners, Judge Peter J. Nemeth of the St. Joseph Probate Court has appropriated basic funding for Reading for Life for 2012.

Peter Morgan, executive director of St. Joseph County’s Thomas N. Frederick Juvenile Justice Center, points out, “Reading for Life has been more successful in diverting young people from the juvenile justice system than traditional programs such as community service. The program’s success makes it very cost-effective.”

Developed at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI), Reading for Life is a character education diversion program that focuses on seven cardinal and theological virtues, and engages youth in small-group discussions of classic and contemporary literature with trained mentors. The goal is to encourage young people to make more prudent life choices. The program mentors juvenile offenders through the Juvenile Justice Center’s probation department.

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