The neurosciences and their supporting institutions are currently making great forecasts. Indeed, due to the erratic rise and differentiation of neuroscientific research and its findings, a multitude of innovations may be expected. These announcements do not only concern insights from basic research but also a series of sensational applications, particularly in medicine, economics, criminal law, or pedagogy. We increasingly read that the neurosciences will prompt us not only to develop a new understanding of ourselves but also of our sociability. All of this has repercussions on science itself: on the one hand, an increasing number of neuroscientific differentiations (“neuroeconomics,” “neuropedagogy,” etc.) are taking place within the social and cultural sciences, and on the other hand—complementary to this—a differentiation is taking place in the neurosciences (“social neuroscience”).
The Science Studies Programme at the University of Basel, with Sts-ch and the Sagw, is organizing a workshop under the title “Two Kinds of Science Going Neuro: Social Neuro Sciences and Neuro Social Sciences,” wishing to pursue both of the aforementioned trends (social neuro sciences und neuro social sciences). The objective is not to unmask as premature or totally amiss the neuroscientific validity claims for addressing social and cultural scientific questions. Rather, the objective is to explore the conditions, forms, and consequences of a neuroscientific reorientation of the landscape of science—especially (but not necessarily exclusively) in the case of pedagogy and economics.
A complete program is available on the Sts-ch website, as well as information on registration.
Illustration: Dierk Schaefer, “Brain,” 21.10.2008, Flickr (Creative Commons license).
