FLOURISHING
WHAT CAN THE SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY LEARN FROM EACH OTHER ABOUT HUMAN WELL BEING?
A Symposium Sponsored by
The Society for Empirical Ethics
In conjunction with:
Marlboro college, vermont,
The Institute for Applied Ethics, Utica College
and
The Department of Religious Studies, Hamilton College
Marlboro College, Brattleboro, Vermont,
November 7 — 9, 2003
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7
6:30 — 7:00 Reception
7:00 - 8:00 Dinner
8:00 - 9:00 Opening Discussion — The Problem of Flourishing: Function and Motivation Neal Weiner — Marlboro College and Co-Founder, Society for Empirical Ethics
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8
9:30 - 11:30 Session II - From Eudaimonia to Flourishing
Robert Halliday — Defining "Healthy"
Heather Keith and Kenneth Keith - Habits of Happiness: Optimism, Hope, and the Philosophy of William James
James Liszka — Happiness and Flourishing: What Lykken, Csikszkentmihalyi, and Aristotle Tell Us About the Important Differences Between Well-Being and Living-Well
11:30-12:30 Lunch
1:00 - 3:00 Session III - Habits of the Heart and Mind
Phillip McReynolds — John Dewey’s Empirical Ethics
Heidi Ravven — Can Ethics Be Naturalized? James vs. Spinoza
Bjørn Grinde - Darwinian Happiness: Flourishing in a Neurological and Evolutionary Perspective
3:30 — 5:00 Session IV - Attachment
Douglas Watt — The Neurobiology and Neuropsychology of Attachment: Why Valuing of Others is Not an Evolutionary Afterthought.
5:30 — 6:30 Dinner
7:00 — 8:45 Session V - Metaphors and Moral Stands
Jeff Mitchell — Karen Horney on Moral Courage
Steven Fesmire — Imagination and Human Flourishing: Cognitive Science, Metaphor, and Ethical Deliberation
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 9
9:30 - 11:00 Session VI - Theory into Practice into Theory
William Casebeer — The Role of 'Functions' in a Naturalized Ethic: Aristotle Redux
C.D. Herrera — Ethical Criticism and Armchair Social Science
11:30 — 1:00 Lunch and Session VII - Concluding Roundtable Discussion
Reflections and Proposals. Led by Robert Halliday
Presenters
William Casebeer
Department of Philosophy,
United States Air Force Academy.
William.casebeer@usafa.af.mi
Steven Fesmire
Robert Halliday,
C.D. Hererra
Heather Keith
Kenneth Keith
James Liszka
Dept. Philosophy
University of Alaska Anchorage
JamesLiszka@uaa.alaska.edu
Phillip McReynolds
Jeff Mitchell
Heidi Ravven
Douglas Watt
Neal Weiner
Bjørn Grinde
Additional Readings
Suggested as useful background by the presenters.
Neal Weiner
Neal Weiner The Harmony of the Soul: Mental Health and Moral Virtue Reconsidered
Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth
James Liszka
Lykken, David and Tellegen, Auke. 1996. Happiness is a Stochastic Phenomenon. Psychological Research 7(3): 186-194.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990. Flow. New York: Harper.
Hurka, Thomas. 1999. The Three Faces of Flourishing. Human Flourishing. Edited by E. Paul, et al. Cambridge University Press.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Heidi Ravven
Spinoza Ethics Parts III and IV
William Casebeer
Nature's Purposes: Analyses of Function and Design in Biology, edited by Colin Allen, Marc Bekoff, and George Lauder. MIT Press, 1998. [esp. Peter Godfrey-Smith "A Modern History Theory of Functions"]
"The Neural Mechanisms of Moral Cognition: A Multiple-Aspect Approach to Moral Judgment and Decision-Making," by William Casebeer and Patricia Churchland. Biology and Philosophy 18: 169-194, 2003.
Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition, by William Casebeer. MIT Press, 2003.
Phillip McReynolds
John Dewey "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" The Collected Works of John Dewey Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale) edited by Jo Ann Boydston.
Douglas Watt
Affective Neuroscience by Jaak Panksepp
The Feeling of What Happens by Antonio Damasio
Chapter Three in the upcoming Textbook of Biological Psychiatry published by Wiley - The neural substrates of consciousness by D. Watt and D. Pincus.
Attachment by Bowlby (two volumes)
Steven Fesmire
Jeff Mitchell
"Can You Take a Stand?" by Karen Horney, in The Unknown Karen Horney: Essays on Gender, Culture, and Psychoanalysis, edited by Bernard J. Paris, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth, various editions.
C.D. Herera
Bernard Williams Ethics and the limits of philosophy.
Charles Larmore The morals of modernity.
Robert Halliday
Carl Rogers "A Therapist's View of the Good Life" in On Becoming A Person 1961
Bjørn Grinde
B. Grinde Darwinian Happiness — Evolution as a Guide for Living and Understanding Human Behavior (The Darwin Press, NJ, 2002; http://www.darwinpress.com/darwinian/);
For shorter versions: Grinde, B. "Darwinian happiness: Biological advice on the quality of life," J Soc Evol Systems 19 (1996) 249-260; and, Grinde B, "Happiness in the perspective of evolutionary psychology," J Happiness Studies 3 (2002) 331-54.
CONFERENCE COSTS
Registration $75, Students $25
Please notify Neal Weiner at nweiner@marlboro.edu if you intend to be at the conference. Registration fees may be paid when you arrive or in advance
Meals at the College:
Breakfast $5.50
Lunch $5.50
Dinner $7.50
LODGING
Best All Around Deal WHETSTONE INN Closest to the college (3 mi.), old, beautiful, Vermonty, in the village of Marlboro, and inexpensive. $45 - $85. 802 254 2500
Colonel Williams Inn. $100-$175, five miles from college on highway. A bed and Breakfast place in an old farmhouse. 802 257 1093
Motel 6 -- $39.99 - $45.99, near Exit 3 off I-91 in Brattleboro, 25 minutes from the college. 802- 254-6007
Latchis Hotel -- Old downtown railroad hotel (renovated) in the heart of arty Brattleboro. 25 minutes to college. $65 -$105. 802 254 6300
Dalem's Chalet -- West Brattleboro, 15 minutes from college, $66 - $105 for two. 800 462 5009.
WEATHER
The Vermont Leaf season will be over by the time we meet, but the weather should be in its meditative pre-winter stage; clear skies, cool (around 60 degrees) by day and chilly (around 40 degrees) at night, with starkly beautiful trees
DIRECTIONS TO MARLBORO COLLEGE
Marlboro college is located on South Road in the village of Marlboro, Vermont. It is three miles off state road 9, which is the road from Bennington VT to Brattleboro, VT.
To reach the college from Rt. 9, simply follow the paved road (South Rd) as it jogs through the village. It will take you directly to the college. South Rd. is a right turn if you are driving from Bennington (about 7 miles past Wilmington) , a left if you are coming from Brattleboro (about 10 miles from Brattleboro.) The sign for the college is very small.
Brattleboro is in the southeastern corner of VT on I-91. Use this route if you are driving from NYC or farther east. Bennington is in the southwestern corner of Vermont. Use this approach from NY state and the west (Thruway to Albany/I-787 to Troy, NY 7 to Bennington VT)
The closest airports are in Hartford CT and Manchester NH, each about 2 hours from the college. The driving is easiest from Hartford (I-91 to Brattleboro, then as above).
There is no good public transportation from the airports to the college. We will be providing transport from Hartford CT airport (Bradley Field) to Marlboro college. We can do this only once on Friday and once on Sunday. The van will be leaving Hartford airport at around 4 p.m. The return van on Sunday will arrive at the airport around 3:30 p.m. Please let Neal Weiner know well in advance if you would like transportation from the airport to the conference. Neal's e-mail address is nweiner@marlboro.edu.
There are some private transportation companies that can get you from the airport to the college. Contact Thomas Transportation at 1 800 526 8143, or Brattleboro Transportation Services (802) 254 - 6446.
Our meetings will be in the Culbertson Room of Dalrymple Hall. Our meals will be in the dining hall. The campus is very, very small (300 students). Anyone can tell you where the buildings are.