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Center for Mind, Brain, and CultureAuthor: Emory College, Emory Center for Mind, Brain and Culture (CMBC)
What is the nature of the human mind? The Emory Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture (CMBC) brings together scholars and researchers from diverse fields and perspectives to seek new answers to this fundamental question. Neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, biological and cultural anthropologists, sociologists, geneticists, behavioral scientists, computer scientists, linguists, philosophers, artists, writers, and historians all pursue an understanding of the human mind, but institutional isolation, the lack of a shared vocabulary, and other communication barriers present obstacles to realizing the potential for interdisciplinary synthesis, synergy, and innovation. It is our mission to support and foster discussion, scholarship, training, and collaboration across diverse disciplines to promote research at the intersection of mind, brain, and culture. What brain mechanisms underlie cognition, emotion, and intelligence and how did these abilities evolve? How do our core mental abilities shape the expression of culture and how is the mind and brain in turn shaped by social and cultural innovations? Such questions demand an interdisciplinary approach. Great progress has been made in understanding the neurophysiological basis of mental states; positioning this understanding in the broader context of human experience, culture, diversity, and evolution is an exciting challenge for the future. By bringing together scholars and researchers from diverse fields and across the college, university, area institutions, and beyond, the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture (CMBC) seeks to build on and expand our current understanding to explore how a deeper appreciation of diversity, difference, context, and change can inform understanding of mind, brain, and behavior. In order to promote intellectual exchange and discussion across disciplines, the CMBC hosts diverse programming, including lectures by scholars conducting cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research, symposia and confer Language: en Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Lecture | Shaun Gallagher "Compassion: Real and Artificial"
Episode 307
Wednesday, 11 February, 2026
Shaun Gallagher | Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Philosophy | University of Memphis "Compassion: Real and Artificial" I’ve proposed a pattern theory of compassion. On this view, compassion is a specific pattern of dynamically related factors that include physiological, cognitive, and affective processes, relational/intersubjective processes, and motivational/action tendencies (Gallagher, Raffone, Aglioti 2024). The idea of compassion as a dynamical pattern is reflected in neuroscientific findings, as well as in compassion practice. This view also allows for a clear distinction between compassion, empathy, and sympathy. Following Dennett’s conception of “real pattern,” compassion can be said to have a pragmatic reality. After summarizing this view I’ll address a question (raised by both computer scientists and Buddhist scholars) about the possibility of creating a compassionate AI system. Can there be such a thing as artificial compassion? If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram | Facebook NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.
