The Moral Animal:
Virtue, Vice & Human Nature

Moderated by Steve Paulson
Executive Producer, To the Best of Our Knowledge

Heather Berlin, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Christian Miller, PhD
Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University

Michael Shermer, PhD
Presidential Fellow, Chapman University

In Tolstoy's famous novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a rich and meaningful inner life is sacrificed in pursuit of material rewards and social status. How can we cultivate something intrinsic that transcends our worldly accomplishments? Assuming a basic model or map of human nature is needed to navigate the road to the good life, what desires, tendencies, and aversions comprise our core nature? How has our evolutionary history shaped our moral impulses? Are we inherently good, or fundamentally flawed? Philosopher Christian Miller joins forces with cognitive neuroscientist Heather Berlin and science writer Michael Shermer to take a closer look at our moral ecology and its influence on our underlying assumptions about human nature.

Webcast Podcast

Date:
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Time:
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Reception to Follow
Location:
The New York Academy of Sciences
7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor
Tickets:
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This event is part of the From Knowledge to Wisdom: Science and the Good Life series, which brings together an array of leading scientists, philosophers, and scholars for an interdisciplinary investigation into the evolving nature of the human condition and the ultimate quest to discover how to lead the good life.
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From Knowledge to Wisdom: Science and the Good Life

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