Date
27/10/2018
Time
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
HSS Psychology Series: A Three-Part Journey
The Humanist Society of Singapore (HSS) proudly presents a series of three talks on psychology and morality, given by three distinguished people in their fields, to elucidate and discuss some of the most forefront ideas on how our minds work.
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GET TICKETS
Neuroscience & Consciousness
https://neuroscience-consciousness.eventbrite.sg
Agent Based Modelling & Game Theory
https://cooperation-gametheory.eventbrite.sg
Evolution of Human Nature & Morality
https://evolution-morality.eventbrite.sg
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PRICING
Entry fees are priced at $10 for members and $15 for non-members.
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TALK SYNOPSES & SPEAKERS
TALK 1 OF 3
29 September 2018 (Saturday), 2-5pm
Venue: Bras Basah Complex, #04-41
Title : Can Neuroscience solve the problem of consciousness?
Speaker : Dr Tim Bunn
Synopsis: David Chalmers famously split the problems of consciousness into two in 1996: the “hard problem”, what consciousness is, how it is like to experience anything, and the “easy problem”, how it works, how animals and ourselves operate consciously. The hard problem has traditionally been in the province of philosophy, the easy problem has only recently begun to be tackled by psychology and neurology. There are many views on whether any solution to either problem is possible: many philosophers continue to believe that the efforts of neuroscience to date show that the hard problem can only be solved by philosophy, if at all. But neuroscientists believe they can solve the easy problem and by so doing show the way to a solution to the hard problem. This talk explains the state of play so far in a scientific and conceptual issue which many believe is critical to our understanding of ourselves and of the possibilities for conscious AI.
About The Speaker:
Dr Tim Bunn describes himself as a serious amateur philosopher. He studied philosophy at Oxford and has led philosophy discussion groups for the last 10 years. He is particularly interested in philosophy of mind. He has also worked as an educational psychologist, where he is particularly interested in understanding learning difficulties. He is excited about an emerging synergy between scientific psychology and phenomenology, the study of experience.
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TALK 2 OF 3
13 October 2018 (Saturday), 2-5pm
Venue: Bras Basah Complex, #04-41
Title : Agent Based Modeling on Game Theory and Evolution of Morality
Speaker : Dr Ronald Ng
Synopsis : While Agent Based Modeling cannot and does not pretend to prove morality in human actions are evolved from nature, it offers a model how without reliance on any god(s), sense of fairness and cooperative behavior could come about by evolution. The models used to illustrate that are the Ultimatum Game and the Prisoners Dilemma. In the Ultimatum Game, two randomly picked person are assigned a role, one is the Initiator, and the other the Responder. (A sum of money is given to the Initiator and the Responder knows the amount of that sum. The Initiator decides how much from that sum he will give to the Responder. If the Responder accepts it, then the Initiator will get the remainder of what he has given the Responder. If the Responder rejects it, then neither will get anything. From filed experiments around the world, in general the Initiator tends to give 40% -50% of the original sum. The Responder tends to start rejecting when the amount is less than 30%. There is no negotiation between the two. It’s a once off offer.) In the Prisoners Dilemma, the two prisoners could cooperate with each other, or defect from each other, or on cooperate and the other defect. (In the last scenario, the prisoner who cooperate but got sold out, scores worse. The Nash Equilibrium is for both to defect and sell out each other. But in the long run, to cooperate with each other is the best. So the question is how does cooperative behavior come about when the Nash Equilibrium is to sell out each other.) There will be an explanation of what is the Nash Equilibrium at the talk.
About The Speaker:
Dr Ronald Ng is a medical doctor, specialising in Haematology. Prior to private practice, Ronald taught at University College Hospital Medical School, London, and at HK University; he was also a member of the Singapore National Medical Research Council. Ronald is an accredited Mediator of Regent University, London. Ronald has completed 137 Massive Open Online Courses, on STEM subjects, philosophy and other humanities. His current interest is in the study of Complexity and Emergent phenomenon.
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TALK 3 OF 3
27 October 2018 (Saturday), 6pm to 8.30pm
Venue: National Library Building, Level 5, Imagination Room
Title : Evolutionary Psychology & Morality
Speaker : Dr. John Elliot
Synopsis : A very brief outline of the logic of evolution by natural selection, and some common misunderstandings about evolution. Are we still evolving?
What evolution implies for our understanding of human nature – this is evolutionary psychology. In particular that it motivates us in ways we are not always aware of (
Evolution and morality. Although people sometimes worry about the implications for morality if evolution is true, their worries are unfounded, as morality seems to be well embedded in human nature.
About The Speaker:
Dr. John Elliott was born in the UK in 1945, came to Singapore in 1951, and attended ACS (Barker Road) and Bootham School, York. He graduated from Cambridge, UK, with honours in experimental psychology in 1968 and obtained his doctorate in 1975 as a staff candidate at Sheffield University. From 1973 -1976 he was the Psychologist in the then Ministry of Social Affairs, Singapore. After a further 10 years in the Sheffield Department of Psychology, he joined NUS as a Senior Teaching Fellow. He has been Associate Professor in Psychology since 1994, also serving part time as a Research Fellow for the Bioethics advisory Committee from 2005 to 2011. He is a former Academic Advisor to the UK Open University Psychology degree programme in Singapore; Member, resource panel for the Singapore Police Force Psychology Unit; Former Member, National Medical Ethics Committee and National Bioethics Advisory Committee, and member, Singapore Childrens’ Society Executive Committee and Chair of its Research Committee.
