Moral Attitudes & Decision-Making at the Kenan Institute for Ethics

Campus Grant application deadline this Friday, Feb. 15

katherine — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:41:00 +0000

Grants of up to $500 are available to all Duke students, faculty and staff for projects that support initiatives that promote ethical or moral reflection, deliberation, and dialogue at Duke and beyond. We welcome diverse perspectives and submissions from organizations and individuals in all areas of the University and the Medical Center. Campus Grant funding provides support for speakers, workshops, meetings, curriculum development, publications, organizational collaborations, and other activities. Travel grants for attending conferences or other individual activities will not be awarded.

For more information and to download the application, visit our Campus Grants site.

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong working on project connecting DNA to psychopathy

katherine — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:32:37 +0000

KIE Senior Fellow Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is part of an interdisciplinary team of Duke researchers looking at data linking DNA to psychiatric, cognitive, and criminal information in an attempt to better define what physiological factors contribute to the ability for empathy. The Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy blog GenomeLife details the project and data set.

WUNC’s “State of Things” features Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

katherine — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:05:19 +0000

KIE Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong was a recent guest on WUNC public radio’s show the State of Things. He discusses the increasingly overlapping spheres of philosophy and neurobiology with host Frank Stasio. The broadcast is now available to stream.

2013 Ethics Film Festival getting started with Gran Torino Jan. 14

katherine — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:41:10 +0000

The Ethics Film Series is a signature series at KIE meant to engage the Durham community in conversation on ideas such as justice, personal freedoms, and social responsibility through the lens of feature films. This year’s theme is “Love and Justice,” with four films that will explore how individuals – both alone and in context of their communities – engage the tension between the demands of justice and the grace of love. When justice executed is seasoned by love, the boundaries of the ethical, social, and political expand in unprecedented ways. After each film, the audience is invited to stay and discuss issues raised by the films with Duke faculty and specialists. The screenings are free and open to the public, with parking passes and refreshments provided.

The first film, Gran Torino (2008), will be screening Monday, January 14. It features actor-director Clint Eastwood as disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski. The story follows his growing friendship with his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski’s prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino. The post-film discussion will be led by Professor Marianna Torgovnick (English Department and Arts of the Moving Image). Torgovnick’s research and teaching expertise relates to film and media studies, cultural criticism, religion, and contemporary American issues.

On Monday February 11th, Le fils (The Son) (2002) will be shown. In this award-winning Belgian-French mystery film, themes of compassion and justice unfold in unexpected ways. The story follows Olivier, a carpentry instructor at a vocational school, who is still recovering from the murder of his only son five years earlier and the subsequent dissolution of his marriage. When a new student applies to join his class, Olivier initially refuses but then secretly begins following the boy.

The last two films in the series are selections from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. Brother Number One (2011) will be screened Monday, March 18. The director of the film, New Zealander Rob Hamill, tells the story of his brother’s death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. It explores the violence of the regime and its followers, killing nearly 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Thirty years later, Rob Hamill has a rare chance to take the stand as a witness at the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal. In this documentary, Rob retraces his brother’s final days, meeting survivors who tell the story of what countless families across Cambodia experienced at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

The award-winning and international festival favorite Habibi (2011), by director Susan Yousef, will show April 8. The film follows young lovers Qays and Layla, university students in the West Bank who are forced to return home to Khan Yunis, Gaza. In conservative Khan Yunis, their relationship can only be sustained through marriage, but Qays is too poor to convince Layla’s father that he can provide for his daughter. As the couple struggles to be together, Qays paints verses from the classical Sufi poem Majnun Layla all over Khan Yunis, a rebellious act that angers Layla’s father and the local self-appointed moral police. Lyrical and passionate, Habibi depicts a reality where personal happiness must be weighed against society’s opinions, and a choice sometimes made between one’s people and one’s heart.

All films begin at 7:00pm
Griffith Theater, Bryan Center
Free admission, parking passes, and movie snacks

The series is sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and presented by Screen/Society at Arts of the Moving Image and the Center for Documentary Studies.

PBS Newshour features faculty Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

katherine — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:26:23 +0000

KIE faculty Walter Sinnott-Armstrong will be featured on the January 8th edition of PBS Newshour at 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm. Sinnott-Armstrong will discuss his involvement in the Coursera online course initiative at Duke.

Ruth Grant gives talk on incentives at University of Houston

katherine — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:08:59 +0000

KIE Faculty Ruth Grant discussed her theories on incentives featured in her most recent book as part of the University of Houston Honors College “What’s Fair? A Lecture Series on Justice and Desert in America.” Read more about the event at the universities student news site, The Daily Cougar.

“Finding Consciousness” Workshop, Jan. 23-25

katherine — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:50:11 +0000

Neuroscientists have recently developed ways to detect consciousness in patients with severe brain injury who show little or no outward sign of consciousness. These new methods raise a host of questions for scientists, philosophers, lawyers, ethicists and medical practitioners.
Join us for the workshop “Finding Consciousness” to discuss these interdisciplinary issues.

The workshop is free and open to the public. However, space is limited and registration is required. For registration and a full schedule, visit the conference website.

Speakers include:
Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD · Timothy Bayne, PhD · James Bernat, MD · Nita Farahany, JD, PhD · Jack Gallant, PhD · Valerie Gray Hardcastle, PhD · Jennifer Hawkins, PhD · Adrian Owen, PhD · Richard Payne, MD · Nicholas Schiff, MD · Caroline Schnakers, PhD

This conference is sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; Bioethics at the NIH; Duke Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine; Duke Institute for Brain Sciences; Kenan Institute for Ethics; Duke Department of Philosophy; and Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

Video of Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s talk at the Ethics Grand Rounds online

katherine — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:55:46 +0000

In October, KIE Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong gave a lecture on the ethics of killing at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Ethics Grand Rounds lecture series. A video of the talk has been published.

MADLAB Opening Reception, Nov. 19

katherine — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:17:37 +0000

The Moral Attitudes and Decision making MADLAB is currently moving into its newly renovated space in the West Duke Building. The lab is a vertically-integrated, interdisciplinary laboratory, co-directed by Phil Costanzo(Psychology and Neuroscience), Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics), and Stephen Vaisey (Sociology), where faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergrads work together on shared research projects. The lab is currently underway in a new facility in the West Duke Building. An opening reception is being held to celebrate the opening of the new lab space.

Opening Reception
November 19, 5:00-7:00 pm
100 West Duke Building
Refreshments will be served

Visiting scholar Yoel Inbar, Dec. 10-12

katherine — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:27:36 +0000

Moral Attitudes and Decision-Making will be hosting visiting scholar Yoel Inbar, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Tilburg University, December 10-12. Inbar will be working with the MADLAB research group.

Inbar will be giving the last lecture in the Monday Seminar Series on December 10th, 12:30-1:30 in 101 West Duke.

Inbar’s research concerns the interplay between two general mental processes that influence judgment: rational, deliberate analysis, and intuitive, emotional reactions. His work looks at the interaction between these two kinds of thinking and the implications for people’s beliefs, actions, and choices. Examinations explore how intuition affects our choices; how our moral beliefs determine our own actions and our judgments of others; and how the emotion of disgust can predict our moral and political attitudes.

For more information on his visit, please contact Nina Strohminger at nina.strohminger@duke.edu.