Date: Aug 23, 7.30 pm       ISCAST-CASE Lecture
Venue: Main Common Room, New College, University of NSW
Topic: Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?
Speaker: Nancey Murphy, Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA.                                   
Cost: $20 (for adults) or $15 (for ISCAST/CASE members, pensioners and students).

Nancey Murphy [B.A., PhD, Th.D.] is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. She has co-edited eleven volumes and authored ten books, including Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? and Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will.
Her research interests focus on the role of modern and postmodern philosophy in shaping Christian theology, on relations between theology and science, and on relations among philosophy of mind, neuroscience, and Christian anthropology.
She will also be the keynote speaker at COSAC 2011, a conference on Science and Christianity, on 26-28 August in Tasmania. See: http://www.iscast.org/cosac_2011 

Abstract: “Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? Ten years ago I gave two lectures in Adelaide on “Why Christians Should Be Physicalists” and “How Physicalists Can Avoid Being Reductionists.” This lecture will be a follow-on to that program. I’ll briefly overview the justifications for a physicalist (as opposed to dualist) theory of human nature, but then focus on the work I’ve done in the meantime, showing why neurobiological reductionism fails. That is, due to our complex neural systems, informed by culture, we are able to transcend deterministic brain processes, allowing for genuine rationality, responsibility, and spirituality. I shall focus in my argument on the resources of the new science of complex adaptive systems theory.

Parking is probably most convenient in nearby suburban streets or alternatively in the multi-storey car park at UNSW Gate 14 on Barker Street or on the adjacent suburban streets.  A light supper will follow the lecture and discussion.
For RSVP (appreciated) or further information contact Prof Peter Barry (p.barry@unsw.edu.au ; 0419 243 685) or Dr Lewis Jones (lewis.jones@simeonnetwork.org ; 0418 605 687).