Challenges and Limits of Behavioural Sciences Applied to Ethics and Politics

The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of scholarly work produced on the subject of ethical decision-making, ethical behaviour and behavioural insights as applied to public policy (i.e. nudges), which culminated with the recent Nobel prize awarded to Richard Thaler. Scholars from various disciplines ranging from economics to philosophy have devoted significant effort to mapping the flaws in human cognition and examining the implications in terms of individual and group behaviours in market and non-market settings. This kind of approach raises ethical and political questions such as autonomy, freedom, paternalism or justice. For example, the literature has investigated how psychological (e.g. self-serving bias) and environmental factors (e.g. framing) can cause individuals to make ethically questionable decisions. One especially promising scholarly movement has been labelled “behavioural ethics”, an area that focuses on automatic processes that underlie people’s decision-making. It covers topics ranging from moral disengagement to the role of the source of justice on ethical behaviour. The methods employed are also diverse, reflecting the dominant techniques of inquiry in disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology and philosophy. 

However, crossing the disciplinary borders and covering a large range of topics and methods raises a number of questions on the limits and challenges and limits of behavioural sciences applied to ethics and politics issues.

Keynote speakers:

Sarah Conly – Professor of Philosophy, Bowdoin College

Robert Sugden – Professor of Economics, University of East Anglia

This conference invites papers, which may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

- Behavioural Sciences and Public Policy

- Cooperation and Social Justice

- Paternalism and Public Decision Making

- Influencing Ethical Behaviours

- Emotions in Ethical Decision Making Process

- Freedom, Determinism and Ethics

- Ethics and Human Nature

- Neuroethics

- Methodological Challenges for Behavioural Ethics

The Conference will be hosted by ETHICS (Lille Catholic University) and organized by Malik Bozzo-Rey and his team. The conference fees are 120€ and covers all refreshments, lunches and one gala dinner (plus conference material). Participants are expected to make their own arrangements for travel and accommodation but information will be given through the dedicated website.

SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL: Those interested to present a paper or to organize a panel at the conference should submit an abstract of no more than 500 words through the dedicated website (https://baeconf2020.sciencesconf.org/) by 15 March 2020. Decisions will be communicated by the end of March.

After the conference, all participants are invited to submit their papers to an edited volume published by Rowman & Littlefield (Behavioural Applied Ethics Series).

Should you have any questions, please contact the Conference Team at [email protected].