Harvard philosopher Nozick to speak

By Rebecca A. Clay

Philosopher Robert Nozick, PhD, expects to get as much from his presentation at the APA?s 1998 Annual Convention as he gives. 'Psychology has a lot of strange empirical phenomena for philosophers to think about,' muses Nozick, one of the nation?s preeminent philosophers.

'What philosophers have to offer psychologists are some speculations that might fruitfully be put to empirical tests.'

The potential for that kind of exchange is what prompted APA President Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD, to invite Nozick to participate in the convention.

'Those who come to his talk will learn how an original thinker from our mother discipline thinks about what we do,' says Seligman. 'Nozick is the leading moral and political philosopher in the world today. In fact, I?d put him on the ?genius? list.'

Nozick will speak Saturday, Aug. 15, 3?3:50 p.m. at the Moscone Center, South Building, Room 301.

A full professor of philosophy at Harvard University since 1969, Nozick sprang into view with the 1974 publication of 'Anarchy, State, and Utopia' (Basic Books). That widely acclaimed work?a philosophical challenge to political viewpoints ranging from liberal to socialist to conservative?won the National Book Award in 1975.

Now a best-selling author, Nozick has written four other books: 'Socratic Puzzles' (Harvard University Press, 1997), 'The Nature of Rationality' (Princeton University Press, 1993), 'The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations' (Simon and Schuster, 1989) and 'Philosophical Explanations' (Harvard University Press, 1981), which won Phi Beta Kappa?s Ralph Waldo Emerson Award. He has also won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Today he is the Arthur Kingsley Porter professor of philosophy at Harvard.

'I want to talk about the role of consciousness in a life, especially the evolutionary function of consciousness,' says Nozick, adding that he hopes his audience will give him new ideas to think about. 'Looking at consciousness in an evolutionary context?thinking about what it?s doing and why it would be selected for?gives us a better understanding of consciousness and how it?s actually functioning in our lives.'

If time permits, Nozick will also explore the neurophysiological processes and events that underlie consciousness. The connection between consciousness and neurophysiology broaches what philosophers call the mind-body problem, he says. Of course, advances in the neurosciences have given that age-old problem new data to work with.

'The neurosciences have made great advances, and people are applying evolutionary considerations to the mind,' says Nozick, noting that an increasing number of philosophers are delving into neuroscience and attempting to integrate it with philosophical thinking about the mind. 'A combination of the two seemed like an interesting thing to think about.'

To prepare for his philosophical forays into consciousness, Nozick did reading in neurophysiology. 'You can read and learn enough to be stimulated and to see where the issues and problems are,' he explains. 'You don?t have to be an expert to get an idea about the general structure of the processes that are taking place.'

Nozick explored his interest in consciousness in one of the six John Locke Lectures he gave at Oxford University last year. Harvard University Press will publish a revised version of the lectures called 'Objectivity and Invariance.'

'Consciousness is thought of as a very subjective aspect of our mental lives,' Nozick explains. 'I want to consider how this subjective aspect of mental life fits into the objective world.'
Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C.