From 2 July 2021 to 10 July 2021
Course presentation
The 19th Summer Bioethics Course will take place 15:30-18:30 on July 2-3 and on 9-10, 2021. Simultaneous translation will be available into English, Italian, and Spanish. The title of the course is “Bioethics and Consciousness: an interdisciplinary and interreligious reflection on an essential dimension of the human person.”
The course is organized by the Faculty of Bioethics in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights established at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and the European University of Rome.
Description
The course is organized by the Neurobioethics research group, in particular by the subgroup on consciousness, with the participation of all other subgroups and researchers of the group. The theme of consciousness is at the center of contemporary bioethics debates. At the beginning stages of human life, the absence of self-consciousness is invoked to justify depriving the human organism of the status of personhood. At the final stages of human life, it is argued that an apparently irreversible loss of the manifestations of human self-consciousness can justify the harvesting of organs as a “donation” from subjects in gravely compromised states of altered consciousness. Moreover, two tensions are widespread in neuroscientific, philosophical and social contexts. On the one hand, there are attempts at reductionism, whether in the merely neurobiological sense or in a functionalist sense. On the other hand, there have emerged many substitutionary approaches that seek to identify personal self-consciousness with mere digitizable information. Therefore, correct information and formation regarding consciousness is important.
This international summer course in bioethics proposes an interdisciplinary and interreligious study of human consciousness with the aim of understanding the plurality of meanings corresponding to the multi-layered complexity of personal dimensions of which it is composed. The course will offer its participants the chance to acquire the knowledge regarding the following areas: the state of the art of the so-called “science of consciousness” ranging from neuroscience to artificial intelligence and including quantum physics; the medical-clinical and psychiatric-psychological context; the philosophy and anthropology of consciousness; the artistic-aesthetic and theological-spiritual dimension. In this final context, special emphasis will be given to interreligious dialogue about the theme. Finally, the course will give its participants the competencies necessary to discern critically the varied contemporary contexts in which consciousness is invoked in order to evaluate critically clinical protocols, proposed laws, sanitary applications, and the political, economic and social implications of the theme.
Coordinators of the course:
Prof. Alberto Carrara: [email protected]
Prof. Alberto García: [email protected]
Programma
Structure of the course
The course is structured in lectures, Q&A sessions, seminars, film discussions, and interactive group activities. Professors of the School of Bioethics and other experts will participate as speakers and moderators of group dynamics.
Day |
Schedule |
Topic |
Speaker |
|
|
CONSCIOUSNESS: MEDICINE AND NEUROSCIENCE |
|
Fri
July 2 |
|
|
|
15:30-15:45 |
Welcoming and Introduction to the Summer Webinar: Consciousness and Interdisciplinarity |
G. Miranda A. García, A. Carrara |
15:45-16:30 |
Neurophysiology of consciousness |
Amir Raz
|
16:30-17:00 |
Neuropathology of consciousness and disability |
Matilde Leonardi
|
17:30-18:00 |
Experimental investigations on consciousness |
Martin Monti
|
18:00-18:30 |
Consciousness in the Aesthetic Vision
Seminar: Introduction to psychology and consciousness in music
Concert for pianoforte and soprano: The consciousness concert |
Melissa Maioni
Luisa Zecchinelli
Lia Lanteri |
|
|
CONSCIOUSNESS: PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOLOGY |
|
Sat
July 3 |
15:30-16:00 |
Consciousness in Psychiatry and DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) |
Benedetto Farina
|
16:00-16:30 |
The default mode network and altered consciousness in psychiatric patients |
Claudio Imperatori
|
16:30-17:00 |
Psychology of states of consciousness. Form perceptive consciousness to self-awareness |
Michela Balconi |
17:30-18:00 |
Workshop: The Neurophysiological Modified states of Consciousness: clinical hypnosis and meditative states in psychological therapies |
Paola Brugnoli
Katalin Varga |
18:00-18:30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
CONSCIOUSNESS: PHILOSOPHICAL & THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES |
|
Fri
July 9 |
15:30-16:00 |
Multidimensional stratification of consciousness |
Alberto Carrara
|
16:00-16:30 |
Self-consciousness |
Giorgia Salatiello
|
16:30-17:00 |
Consciousness: Cartesian and Lockean perspectives |
Adrián Canal
|
17:30-18:00 |
Is consciousness a product of the brain or/and a divine act of God?
|
Alex Yeung
Daniela Del Gaudio |
18:00-18:30 |
Anthropology of Consciousness, Awareness and Conscience. Metaphysics of Consciousness. Consciousness and Self-Knowledge. |
Michael Baggot |
|
|
CONSCIOUSNESS: BIOETHICAL, LEGAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES |
|
Sat
July 10 |
15:30-16:00 |
Clinical ethics and consciousness: Interaction physician-patient in challenged consciousness states. Conscientious care for the unconscious patient |
Francisco Ballesta
|
16:00-16:30 |
Research ethics and consciousness |
Francisco Ballesta
|
16:30-17:00 |
Legal responsibility and consciousness in healthcare: right and wrong in decision-making and action. Informed consent in patients in residual consciousness situation and in healthy patients/subject of experimentation |
Marta Albert |
17:30-18:00 |
End of life dilemmas in residual cognitive function in comatose, vegetative and minimally conscious states. |
Gonzalo Miranda
|
18:00-18:30 |
Should we translate human consciousness into machine consciousness if possible. What is consciousness and could machines have it?
Consciousness in the Aesthetic Vision |
Alberto Carrara
Melissa Maioni |
Useful Information
Admission and Inscription
The admission process follows the general norms foreseen for the Faculty. In particular, the course requires possession of at least a high school degree.
Admission period: From January 7 until July 9, 2021.
Number of course participants: 10 – 60.
Academic fees
Payment can be made in the following ways:
· At the bursar’s booth in the Athenaeum at the beginning of the course.
· By a wire transfer. In your payment, please specify your full name, and make it payable to “Corso Estivo Bioetica 2021”
Standard fee |
One week |
350 € |
Both weeks |
600 € |
|
|
Special fee:
Priests, religious, students in bioethics, students of ISSR, alumni of APRA, doctoral students in bioethics. Groups of 6 or more*. |
One week |
275 € |
Both weeks |
450 € |
*Group registration is to be done by the person in charge of the group. The one in charge should:
1. Submit a presentation letter for the group to the general secretary of the Ateneo, containing the names of all the members and the required documentation (registration form, ID, etc.) for each member.
2. Pay the all the members’ fees at one time.
Grazie alla Family Farrel Foundation.
