Stanford University Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) : Summer Workshop on Cognitive Science/Neuroscience and the Humanities

Although traditionally scholars in the humanities are taught to eschew methodologies and perspectives derived from the natural sciences as “scientistic,” “reductionist,” and worse, a growing number of humanistic scholars are turning to cognitive science and neuroscience for new insights and new approaches. These scholars are arguing that cognitive science and neuroscience have potentially revolutionary implications for reconceiving important questions in the arts, literature, history, philosophy, and more.

What are the range of uses to which perspectives from the cognitive science and neuroscience may be put by scholars from the humanities? What are the payoffs to be gained from this kind of undertaking? What are the risks and pitfalls?

CASBS’ 2011 Summer Workshop on Cognitive Science/Neuroscience and the Humanities, which will be held from Monday, July 25 – Friday, August 5, 2011, will consist of 10 days of tutorials and high-level exploration devoted to these questions and more. Morning sessions will introduce participants to the findings and theories in cognitive science and neuroscience most relevant to illuminating an area of particular interest. Afternoon sessions, conducted in breakout groups and plenary discussions, will explore ways in which links are being made – or could be made – between the science and the humanities.

Topics covered include: The nature of information processing; Key facts about the brain and neuroscientific methods; Visual perception, aesthetics and art history; Memory beyond Freud; False memory, implicit memory, and the new “unconscious”; Mental imagery and the literary imagination; Thinking in metaphors, or philosophy “in the flesh”; The history of emotions, and emotions in history; Narrative and the brain; Stories as the building blocks of culture; Empathy and the cinematic experience; Morality and neuroethics ; The humanistic quest for a just world; Neural plasticity and « biological determinism » – a new take on post-modern Theory.

Applications are being accepted for this workshop from 27 January – 31 March 2011. Please be sure to read the Applicant Guidelines and Instructions before applying.
For the Summer Workshop Applicant Guidelines, click HERE >>
For the Summer Workshop Application Instructions, which should be read after the guidelines, click HERE >>
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Pour plus d’informations : http://www.casbs.org/index.php?act=page&id=283