Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture to be held at St Mary’s

St Mary’s University, Twickenham will continue its Royal Institute of Philosophy (RIP) Lecture Series on Thursday 5^th March. The free lecture entitled Are we accountable for unconscious biases? Will be given by Prof Helen Beebee, Samuel Hall Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester. The lecture will examine the increasingly persuasive evidence that our behaviour is often affected by implicit biases; unconscious attitudes to people of a certain kind (e.g. women, different ethnic groups, disabled people) that often contradict our explicit, conscious beliefs. From the evidence, the lecture will discuss under what circumstances, if any, we are accountable for the biases themselves and the behaviour that they cause. It will be argued that there are at least some circumstances under which we are morally responsible for behaviour that stems from implicit biases, even if that behaviour is not under our conscious control. Prof Beebee co-chairs the joint British Philosophical Association/Society for Women in Philosophy Committee for Women in Philosophy. Her research interests include freedom of will, causality, and the philosophy of David Hume, and her publications include Hume on Causation (Routledge 2006) and Free Will: An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). The lecture is free and open to the public with no registration required. It will take place at St Mary’s Strawberry Hill Campus from 5.15pm and will be followed by a Q&A session and wine reception. For further information please contact Dr Yasemin J. Erden – yj.erden@stmarys.ac.uk. Image: ‘The People of Bath’, courtesy of Hazel Evans, København, Danmark