The Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics, Macquarie University, presents a lecture by Dr Cordelia Fine
“The female brain is a high performance emotion machine”! Issues in the interpretation and reporting of brain science, from scanner to soundbite. The public are fascinated by neuroscientific research. However, neuroscience lends itself easily to over-interpretation and, perhaps because it seems to offer privileged insights into who we 'really' are, may be particularly effective in influencing public attitudes. Using discoveries of sex differences in the brain as an example, I discuss issues in the interpretation of such findings, the subtleties of which are often overlooked by prominent popular writers. In light of growing evidence that popular reports of sex differences in the brain may have tangible effects on our minds (not to mention school curricula), I conclude by raising the question of the responsibilities of the neuroscientist in the pathway from scanner to soundbite. About the speaker: Dr Cordelia Fine studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, followed by an M.Phil in Criminology at Cambridge University and a Ph.D in Psychology from University College London. Between 2002 to 2007 she held Research Fellow positions at Monash University and the Australian National University. Her academic work explores the ethical and meta-ethical implications of research in the cognitive sciences, and she is also the author of A Mind of Its Own: How your brain distorts and deceives. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics (CAPPE) at the University of Melbourne, and her second book - Delusions of Gender: How our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference - will be published by WW Norton in August 2010. Date and time: Tuesday 27th October 4pm Venue: Macquarie Graduate School of Management Room 102 Macquarie University Professor Jeanette Kennett Department of Philosophy & Macquarie Centre for Cogntive Science Macquarie University Location: Building W6A Room 736 Phone: (61 2) 9850 1047 Fax: (61 2) 9850 8892 Email: [email protected] _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 885 subscribers now served. To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
