Forum for Interdisciplinary Dialogue

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia is organizing the fourth Forum for Interdisciplinary Dialogue (FID) to be held on 10-11 April 2015 in Charlottesville, VA.

What is development? A variety of notions fall under this umbrella term: development as human flourishing, development as embryogenesis, development as technological progress, as optimization of resource allocations, and development in education and political organization and implementation, driven by replacement of the reign of force with the rule of law. These notions connect at a fundamental level; the reason they can all be classified as development is because we find them valuable for us as individuals, society, and species. But what are the structural relations between them? How do we determine the value of development in practice, what ethical considerations inform and constrain our decisions? The fourth Forum for Interdisciplinary Dialogue aims to address these questions in a focused and open-minded way.

Ethical codes of conduct already directly regulate the activity of scientists and engineers in fields ranging from particle physics to neuroscience to agricultural production, and they indirectly govern human activity in virtually all other fields, including the humanities and social sciences. What are the unifying ethical themes across these disciplines, and how will they evolve in light of continuing development and discovery? Is there more than one set of standards used when assessing which projects might benefit society and individuals? If so, is such pluralism a sign of intellectual chaos, or of reflective equilibrium?

More details can be found at the conference website: