LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Jung Center of Houston presents The Neuroscience of Morality: Why Meditation is Mankind's Only Hope.  Noted psychiatrist James Duffy explores current research into the value of contemplative practice.

How do our brains shape our sense of right and wrong? In his seventeenth century classic Leviathan, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes suggested that modern society needs to construct and implement moral codes that will protect us from one another. This rule-based morality has become the foundation of modern societies and has been the impetus for increasingly complex laws and regulations. Unfortunately, it appears that this moral code is beginning to collapse as our prison numbers swell and we lose faith in our law makers.

This lecture will review recent findings about how our brains shape morality. We will explore how these findings are beginning to take us beyond Hobbes and offer the promise of a future where we can utilize ancient contemplative practices to literally change our brains and create a society based on compassionate caring for one another. Perhaps meditation represents the next great technology that will transform society, mankind's only hope.

 

James Duffy, MD, FANPA, FAAHPM, is currently Professor of Psychiatry at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas. He is also a Fellow of the McGovern Center for Health, Healing, and the Human Spirit at the University of Texas.