Cultivating Character: The Art of Living
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
The New York Academy of Sciences
Presented By
The New York Academy of Sciences
Wisconsin Public Radio's nationally-syndicated program To the Best of Our Knowledge
Video of the full event is available on the Nour Foundation's YouTube channel.
Nearly everyone agrees that knowledge is gained through diligent study and investigation, but there is far greater ambiguity when it comes to the meaning of wisdom and how it is acquired. What is wisdom, and how can it be attained? Is there an empirical relationship between wisdom and the cultivation of character, as Aristotle and others have argued? Are the development of virtue and the fulfillment of our innate potential prerequisites to living the good life? Philosopher of science Philip Kitcher joins Humean philosopher Valerie Tiberius and distinguished psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett to explore the role of wisdom in the interplay between positive emotions, virtues, and character.
*Reception to follow.
Featuring
Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD
University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University
Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory
Philip Kitcher, PhD
John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University
Author of "The Ethical Project"
Valerie Tiberius, PhD
Chair and Professor of Philosophy at University of Minnesota
Author of: "The Reflective Life: Living Wisely With Our Limits" and "Moral Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction"
Moderator
Steve Paulson
Executive Producer, Wisconsin Public Radio's nationally-syndicated program To the Best of Our Knowledge
Registration — Individual Lecture Prices
| Member | $5 |
| Member (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow) | $5 |
| Nonmember | $15 |
| Nonmember (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow) | $7 |
This event is part of the From Knowledge to Wisdom series.
Moderated by journalist Steve Paulson, Executive Producer of Wisconsin Public Radio’s nationally syndicated program To the Best of our Knowledge, this timely and engaging three-part series at the New York Academy of Sciences 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.
To learn more about each lecture and to purchase tickets, click on the links below.
- A New Science of Happiness: The Paradox of Pleasure October 8, 2015
- The Moral Animal: Virtue, Vice & Human Nature, December 9, 2015
- Cultivating Character: The Art of Living, February 3, 2016
Featuring
Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD
University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University
Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory
Lisa Feldman Barrett, is University Distinguished Professor of psychology and director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory (IASLab) at Northeastern University, with research appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Barrett's research focuses on the nature of emotion from both psychological and neuroscience perspectives. She is the recipient of many research awards, including the prestigious Pioneer Award in 2007 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Office of the Director, for her transformative research on emotion. Barrett is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in addition to many others. She has published over 190 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, has edited five volumes, and her first authored book, How Emotions Are Made (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) will be published in 2017.
Philip Kitcher, PhD
John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University
Author of "The Ethical Project"
Philip Kitcher was born in 1947 in London, UK. He received his BA from the University of Cambridge and his PhD from Princeton University. He has taught at several American universities, and is currently John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. He is the author of books on topics ranging from the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of biology, the growth of science, the role of science in society, naturalistic ethics, Wagner’s Ring, and Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. He has been president of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) and editor in chief of Philosophy of Science. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was also the first recipient of the Prometheus Prize, awarded by the American Philosophical Association for work in expanding the frontiers of science and philosophy. He has been named a “Friend of Darwin” by the National Committee on Science Education, and received a Lannan Foundation Notable Book Award for Living With Darwin. Among his recent books are, Science in a Democratic Society (Prometheus Books), The Ethical Project (Harvard University Press), Preludes to Pragmatism (Oxford University Press) and Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach (Columbia University Press). During 2011-12, he was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, where he was partially supported by a prize from the Humboldt Foundation. His Terry Lectures were published in the Fall of 2014 as Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism (Yale University Press). In the fall of 2015, he was a Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.
Valerie Tiberius, PhD
Chair and Professor of Philosophy at University of Minnesota
Author of: "The Reflective Life: Living Wisely With Our Limits" and Moral Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction
Valerie Tiberius is professor of philosophy and department chair at the University of Minnesota, where she has taught since 1998. She earned her BA from the University of Toronto and her MA and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work explores the ways in which philosophy and psychology can both contribute to the study of well-being and virtue. She is the author of The Reflective Life: Living Wisely With Our Limits (Oxford University Press, 2008), which examines how we ought to think about practical wisdom and living a good life given what we now know about ourselves from empirical psychology. Her most recent book, Moral Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2015), brings together traditional philosophical approaches and new empirical approaches in order to investigate topics such as moral motivation, moral responsibility, and reasons to be moral. She has also published numerous articles on the topics of practical reasoning, prudential virtues, well-being, and the relationship between positive psychology and ethics, and has received grants from the Templeton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is currently vice president and president-elect of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association.
Moderator
Steve Paulson
Executive Producer, Wisconsin Public Radio's nationally-syndicated program To the Best of Our Knowledge.
Steve Paulson is the executive producer and an interviewer with To the Best of Our Knowledge, the Peabody Award-winning radio program produced at Wisconsin Public Radio and syndicated nationally by Public Radio International. Paulson has written for Salon, Slate, Huffington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Independent and other publications. His radio reports have also been broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His recent book, "Atoms and Eden: Conversations on Religion and Science," was published by Oxford University Press.
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New York, NY 10007-2157
212.298.8600
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