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CFN________ Initiatives and Proposals
The Center for Naturalism is seeking participation and support for the following initiatives, which will help increase public awareness of naturalism as a viable world view and apply naturalism to social and environmental policy. Should you or someone you know be interested in participating in or supporting any of these proposals, please be in touch.
Walk the Planet! (on Environment page)
Youth Curriculum on Naturalism (on Education page)
Council on Crime and Causality (on Policy page)
Conference on Naturalism (directly below)
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Encountering Naturalism: Science, Self, and Society
A Multi-Disciplinary Symposium on the Implications of Naturalism
Note: the following agenda is meant to illustrate the sorts of issues that could be discussed in a conference on free will and applied naturalism. Certainly not all topics below could be covered in a one day format as in the proposed schedule. But they could conceivably be covered in a two or three day version of this conference. The topics mentioned below are certainly not exhaustive, but they do at least scratch the surface.
Proposed Sample Agenda
Section 1 – Introduction
Our full connection to nature: the virtues of an inclusive scientific naturalism
Challenging the supernatural soul: parallels to beliefs in god and afterlife
Common fears about not having free will: fatalism, immorality, meaninglessness
Not a necessary fiction: why we don’t need free will to be happy, good, or productive
Causality and society: overview of social benefits of inclusive naturalism
Living without free will: overview of the personal benefits of accepting causality and connection
Section 2 – Causality and Freedom
Causality and the case against libertarian free will: science versus magical thinking
Freedom within determinism: the causal powers of persons
No third factor: sufficiency of genetics and environment to account for behavior
Consciousness and mechanism: choice, rationality, and the causal role of consciousness
The significance of causality: the power of knowing why we do what we do
Artificial intelligence: alternative realizations of personhood
[Lunch]
Section 3 – Social and Policy Implications of Inclusive Naturalism
Education: teaching about causality and connection
Mental health and addiction: stigma, science, and personal responsibility
Criminal justice without retribution: the causes of crime and the aims of the law
Social justice and meritocracy: poverty, inequality and the deserving self
Section 4 – Personal Implications of Living without Free Will
Personal growth: psychological health and causal self-understanding
Interpersonal dynamics without free will: raising children, working with others
The extended self: inclusive identity and the growth of environmental consciousness
Spirituality and meaning in a physical universe
Section 5 - Moderated Open Discussion
9 – 9:10 Welcome and introductions
9:15 – 10:30 Section 1: 2 speakers 30 minutes each, Q&A w/speakers 15 minutes
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45 – 12:00 Section 2: 2 speakers, Q&A
12:00 – 1:30 Lunch w/option for topic discussion groups
1:30 - 2:45 Section 3: 2 speakers, Q&A
2:45- 3:00 Break
3:00 – 4:15 Section 4: 2 speakers, Q&A
4:15 – 5:00 Moderated open discussion, w/panel of all speakers
Total speaking time = 4 hours
Total Q&A and discussion time = 1.75 hours
Total break time = 2 hours
Possible Speakers (in no particular order):
Note: the names below are just a few of those who might be appropriate participants in this proposed conference. Please be in touch if you would be interested in participating, or would like to nominate someone for participation.
Neuroscience, philosophy, free will:
Owen Flanagan (Duke, The Problem of the Soul)
Tamler Sommers from Duke U (studied with Flanagan)
Bruce Waller (The Natural Selection of Autonomy)
Ted Honderich (England, How Free Are You?, Punishment: The Supposed Justifications)
Valerie Hardcastle (U of VT)
Janet Radcliffe Richards (wrote Human Nature After Darwin, on critical thinking, philosophy, and evolution)
Susan Blackmore (Meme Machine, ended with chapter questioning self and free will)
William Casebeer
Daniel Dennett (2 books on free will, many others)
David Noelle (wrote a good piece for FI on punishment)
Patricia Churchland
Physics and causality:
Neil de Grass Tyson
Criminal justice:
Derk Pereboom (U of VT, Living Without Free Will)
Stephen Morse (Upenn, “Guiding Goodness,” “Waiting for Determinism to Happen”)
Prof. Banner at UCLA (wrote NYTimes piece on capital punishment mentioning fw)
Adrian Raine (UCLA, “Mark of Caine”, crime and neuroscience)
Michael Edmund O’Neill (George Mason U)
Biology/evolution:
Richard Dawkins
Will Provine (Cornell, anti-free will)
Leda Cominedes
Ursula Goodenough (Sacred Depths of Nature)
Environment/spirituality:
Ann Druyan
Ursula Goodenough (Sacred Depths of Nature)
Chet Raymo (Skeptics and True Believers)
Social Justice:
Holly Sklar
Education:
perhaps someone from National Center for Science Education
Psychology:
Bob Miller (naturalist psychologist)
Les Garwood (psychiatrist, Yahoo determinism group)
Dan Wegner (Harvard, The Illusion of Conscious Will)
John Bargh (NYU, writes on automaticity)
Sample talk titles:
“Is free will a necessary fiction?”
“Exorcizing the ghost in the machine”
“Who’s responsible for self-control?”
“Neuroscience and the soul”
“Who’s afraid of determinism?”
“Believing in weird things: the contra-causal agent”
“Merit and inequality”
“Causality and empowerment”
“Law and agency”
“I’m nobody, who are you? - the self in its context”
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