Is morality universal and should the law care?

Symposium: Brooklyn Law School Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition

OVERVIEW:

Discoveries about the ways our minds work lead us to ask important questions that concern the law. Among them are: Do we have a universal set of moral principles, which suggests that people should be held responsible for complying with them regardless of articulated legal standards? Is there a universal set of justifications and excuses for otherwise bad conduct? Do we have a strong impulse toward retribution, and if so, should the law reinforce or temper that impulse? Are there universal principles of social cognition, and if so, how should the law respond to their existence? Can we tie any such patterns to evolution? Are we configured to blame more easily than to praise, and how does the law reflect this asymmetry?

Participants in the symposium include experts in law, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, history, and psychiatry. Their presence at the symposium will highlight both the occasional consensus and more frequent controversy about these most important questions. The symposium is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition and the Brooklyn Law Review.

Agenda

8:15 am Registration, Continental Breakfast, Opening Remarks
9:00 am Moral Universals vs. Adaptive Flexibility

Panelists:
John M. Darley, Dept. of Psychology, Princeton University
Adam J. Kolber, Univ. of San Diego School of Law; Brooklyn Law School
Bailey H. Kuklin, Brooklyn Law School

Discussant:
Laurence R. Tancredi, New York University School of Medicine

Moderator:
Miriam H. Baer, Brooklyn Law School

11:15 am Break

11:30 am Moral Attribution: Positive and Negative

Panelists:
Susanna L. Blumenthal, University of Minnesota Law School
Lawrence M. Solan, Brooklyn Law School

Discussant: Joshua Knobe, Dept. of Philosophy, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

Moderator:
Jason Mazzone, Brooklyn Law School

1:00 pm Luncheon

2:00 pm How Universal are Moral Universals?

Panelists:
Paul Bloom, Dept. of Psychology, Yale University
Ray Jackendoff, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University
John Mikhail, Georgetown University Law Center

Moderator/Discussant:
Michael Cahill, Brooklyn Law School

4:45-5:00 pm General Discussion

Moderator: Kevin M. Carlsmith, Dept. of Psychology, Colgate University

RSVP http://www.brooklaw.edu/centers/cognition/