What Makes Us Wise?

Stephen S. Hall, the author of Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience, deliberates what it is in our brains that makes us “wise” with neuroscientist Andre Fenton and a philosopher. Fenton studies the neural basis for experience and knowledge and its relationship with navigating space.
For twenty-five years, Stephen S. Hall has written about the intersection of science and society in books, magazine articles, and essays, primarily in The New York Times Magazine. He is the author of five previous critically acclaimed books, including Invisible Frontiers and Merchants of Immortality. He has received numerous awards, including in 2004 the Science in Society Journalism Award for book writing from the National Association of Science Writers and, in 1998, the William B. Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute.

Andre Fenton is a professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center where his work focuses on the neurophysiology of spatial cognition. Fenton’s lab investigates the interaction of memories and neural activity in multiple spatial coordinate frames, the role of the hippocampus in organizing representations and responses to relevant and irrelevant information, and the organization of hippocampal discharge by learning and attention-like processes.

The New York Times Community Affairs Department is a media sponsor for this event.
BRAINWAVE is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.