In praise of uncertainty: beyond determinism
Brain: (n.). An apparatus with which we think what we think (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary).
AM
09:00
Opening Speech
Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk
Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht
11:20
Can we reconcile Aristotle's metaphysics of life with contemporary neuroscience models?
Christopher Caruana op
University of Malta
09:40
Body and spirit: two separate substances or two attributes of the same substance?
Archbishop Antonio Staglianò
Pontifical Academy of Theology
12:00
The body and its metamorphoses in the light of narrative medicine
Guenda Bernegger
Supsi, Lugano
10:20
The anthropology of the body in the time of neuroscience
David le Breton
University of Strasbourg
12:40
"Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled" (Dostoevsky). Can studying the brain unravel the mystery?
Sofia Carozza
Harvard Medical School
11:00
Coffee break
13:20
Lunch Break
Thursday 14 March 2024
Thursday 14 March 2024
The soul between biology and mystery: At the roots of the self …
I am a brain. The rest of me is a mere appendix. (Arthur Conan Doyle)
The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around. (Thomas Edison)
PM
16:00
Constructing the self: how the brain creates self-consciousness
Jane Aspell
Anglia Ruskin University
18:20
The self and its corporeality in the face of the transhuman challenge
Markus Krienke
Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano, Università della Svizzera Italiana
16:40
Clinical pedagogy for the evolution of human potential through the stimulation of brain synchronism
Concetta Bruno
Università Suor Orsola Benincasa
19:00
Robotics and neuroscience: ethical profiles and debate on the concept of consciousness
Aquilina Sergio
Pontificia Facoltà Teologica dell'Italia Meridionale - Sez. San Tommaso
17:20
The impact of AI technology on human identity and self-understanding
Simone Saccomani
Università della Svizzera Italiana
19:40
Art, neuroscience and creativity
Laura Apollonio
Universidad de Granada
18:00
Coffee break
20:20
Dinner
Friday 15 March 2024
The Genealogy of Morality: The Moral Brain
It is not the brain that matters most, but what drives it: character, heart, generosity, progressive ideas. (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
The heart has its reasons that reason does not know... We know the truth not only from reason, but from the heart (Blaise Pascal).
AM
09:00
Neuroscience and free will: are we really free?
Aaron Shurger
Chapman University
11:20
Love-desire-hope: neurobiological programming?
Emanuele Caroppo
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
09:40
Virtues and vices: a neuroscientific understanding of habits
Javier Bernácer María
Universidad de Navarra
12:00
Sexuality seen from the prism of neuroscience
Raphael Alvarez Garcia
Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
10:20
Go and sin no more: the neuroscience of temptation and conversion
Raymond Zammit
University of Malta
12:40
What space for madness?
Pietro Grassi
ISSR Apollinare - Pontificia Università della Santa Croce
11:00
Coffee Break
13.20
Lunch Break
Friday 15 March 2024
Healing the mind to heal the body
“Yes,” he said, “yes, she too works for the salvation of man.” Rieux tried to smile.
“The salvation of man is too big an expression for me. I don't go that far. I'm interested in his health, first of all his health." (Albert Camus, The Plague) - Albert Camus, The plague, New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1958, 197
PM
16:00
Carmelite meditators. A case study in relation to the concept of the placing of self
Charlo Camilleri o.carm.
University of Malta
James Formosa
University of Malta
18:20
Understanding the interactions between the brain and the immune system to propose new therapies
Clara Blondel
16:40
Exploring Neurophysiological Modified States of Consciousness: An Interdisciplinary Neuroscientific Analysis of Hypnotherapy and Meditative Therapies
Daniela Poggiolini
IKOS Ageform
19:00
The mind-body-environment relationship after the pandemic: the role of epigenetics and social learning in neurological disorders
Daniela Chieffo
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
17:20
Emotions, feelings and their relationship with nutrition
Philippe Cornet
Sorbonne University
19:40
Post-Covid neuroscience and the non-mental unconscious
Stefan Pallanti
Istituto di Neuroscienze (Florence)
18:00
Coffee Break
20:20
Dinner
Saturday 16 March 2024
The Mind Behind Bars: Exploring the Nexus of Crime and Neuroscience
You paint with your brain, not with your hands. (Michelangelo Buonarroti)
AM
09:00
Development of the neurocognitive apparatus and fictio iuris: the concept of imputability in the times of neuroscience
Pasquale Peluso
Guglielmo Marconi University
11:20
Legal profiles of some forms of political/public manipulation of the human mind and conscience
Pasquale Lillo
Università della Tuscia, Viterbo
09:40
On psychopathy and Maltese offenders
Kevin Sammut Henwood
University of Malta
Rianne Psaila
Forensic Psychology Pracitioner
12:00
Neurocriminology and neuroethics: new frontiers of neuroscience
Andreas Aceranti
10:20
Body in mutation, law in reaction: "science without conscience is only the ruin of the soul"
Stephanie Mauclair
Université d'Orléans
12:40
Brain interventions and Neuroethics: Between Treatment, Enhancement and Punishment
Georgia-Martha Gkotsi National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
11:00
Coffee Break
13.20
Lunch Break
Saturday 16 March 2024
Neurosciences and the world of tomorrow
If you can't control your mind, you won't be able to control anything else. (Napoleon Hill)
Once a certain threshold has been exceeded, the instrument, from a servant, becomes a despot. (Ivan Ilyich, in Conviviality.)
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lit. (Plutarch)
PM
16:00
The artificial character of human corporeity: ethical aspects of neuroprosthetics
José María Galván
Pontificial University of the Holy Cross
18:20
Neuroeconomics and neuromarketing: a theological ethics approach
Domenico Santangelo
Lateran University
16:40
Brain computer interfaces: will we all become cyborgs?
Kenneth Camilleri
University of Malta
19:00
Social neuroscience, artificial intelligence and care: value and critical issues
Michela Balconi
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
17:20
From the symbiont to the cyborg: the metamorphosis of the biological self
Gianvito Martino
Universita Vita-Salute San Raffale
19:40
Neuroscience, artificial intelligence and the world of tomorrow
Carlo Simeone
Manager and Director of Rivista Italia Etica
18:00
Coffee Break
20:20
The effects of digital culture on the psyche from a Gestalt perspective
Nadia Delicata
University of Malta