The Human Question

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2014-09-23

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University of Cape Town

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Lecture series coordinated by Professor Nicoli Nattrass, School of Economics, University of Cape Town. The question of what it means to be human is an old one, and of central importance to the social sciences. Our powerful brains and complex cultural and economic lives distinguish us from other animals, yet recent developments in neuroscience are placing new emphasis on the mammalian nature of human brains. This poses challenges for how the social sciences view the question of being human. The first lecture of this course will focus on the implications of recent neuroscience for psychology and for how we understand human behaviour. The lectures that follow will explore how the social sciences have engaged with the issue of what it means to be human, covering classical understandings as well as recent evidence from the biological and behavioural sciences. The second lecture will discuss the way in which the human has been conceptualised by neoclassical economics as ‘homo-economicus’ and how recent developments in behavioural economics are shifting our understanding. The third lecture will discuss classical political thinking (primarily Locke and Rousseau) and then turn to empirical research on power, authority, hierarchy and obedience among humans and other primates. The fourth lecture will look at the issue of sociality and antisociality by posing the question of how we understand the criminal. The course will conclude with a panel discussion reflecting on the key challenges that neuroscience poses for social science and vice versa. LECTURE TITLES: *1. The animal mind within us Mark Solms, Dept of Psychology; *2. Homo-economicus? Prof Nicoli Nattrass, School of Economics; *3. Humans, hierarchies and the study of political power, Prof Jeremy Seekings, Depts of Political Studies & Sociology (podcast not available due to technical error); *4. Who is the criminal? Prof Clifford Shearing, Centre of Criminology; *5. Economics, politics, criminology and the brain Panel discussion.
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