CEU Summer University Course onMORALITY: EVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS AND
COGNITIVE MECHANISMS
We invite applications from graduate students, junior or post-doctoral
researchers, teachers and professionals in the social sciences and
humanities.
Application deadline is February 14, 2014
Financial aid is available for most courses.
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COURSE DIRECTOR Nicolas Baumard, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris,
France
FACULTY Jean-Baptiste André, CNRS, Paris, France; Paul Bloom, Yale
University, New Haven, USA; Redouan Bshary, University of Neuchatel,
Switzerland; Leda Cosmides, University of California, Santa Barbara,
USA; Molly Crockett, University College London, UK; Gergely Csibra,
Central European University, Budapest, Hungary; Fiery Cushman, Brown
University, Providence, USA; Keith Jensen, Manchester University, UK;
Dan Sperber, Department of Cognitive Science / Department of Philosophy,
CEU, Budapest, Hungary | Directeur de Recherche au CNRS, Paris, Institut
Jean Nicod, France; John Tooby, Anthropology, University of California
Santa Barbara, US; and Karen Wynn, Yale University, New Haven, USA
GUEST SPEAKER Pascal Boyer, Psychology and Anthropology departments,
Washington University in St Louis, USA
BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION
What makes humans moral beings? This question can be understood either
as a proximate “how” question or as an ultimate “why” question. The “how”
question, which is about the mental and social mechanisms that produce
moral judgments, has been investigated by psychologists and social
scientists. The “why” question, which is about the fitness consequences
that explain why humans have morality, has been discussed by
evolutionary biologists in the context of the evolution of cooperation.
The goal of this summer school is to contribute to a fruitful
articulation of such proximate and ultimate explanations of human
morality.
The school will be taught by internationally renowned experts
interested in both ultimate and proximate questions, from evolutionary
biology (Jean-Baptiste André, Redouan Bshary), comparative psychology
(Keith Jensen), evolutionary psychology (Nicolas Baumard, Leda Cosmides)
to cognitive neuroscience (Molly Crockett), developmental psychology
(Paul Bloom, Gergely Csibra, Karen Wynn) and cognitive psychology (Fiery
Cushman).
The design of the course stresses highly interactive forms of teaching.
The course will begin with introductory lectures to build common ground
between the researchers from different disciplines. After the
introductions, all segments will be held in a seminar format, with
faculty members leading the seminar, and responses/commentaries
delivered by teams of students. There will be specific time devoted to
smaller group discussions, also led by a member of the faculty, and also
opportunities for selected students to give talks and poster
presentations.
The summer course is aimed at providing a state-of-the-art cutting-edge
scientific and research-oriented training for post-doctoral young
researchers and highly promising pre-doctoral students from European and
overseas universities and research institutes on the evolutionary and
psychological bases of morality.
Central European University's summer school (CEU SUN), established in
1996, is a program in English for graduate students, junior or
post-doctoral researchers, teachers and professionals. It offers
high-level, research-oriented, interdisciplinary academic courses as
well as workshops on policy issues for professional development, taught
by internationally renowned scholars and policy experts (including CEU
faculty). Application from all over the world is encouraged. Financial
aid is available.
For further academic information on the course and on eligibility
criteria and funding options please visit the web site at
http://summer.ceu.hu/morality-2014