Luis Martínez Otero, Jordi Camí and Miguel Ángel Gea

18.00-19.00

Luis Martínez Otero | How do we make moral decisions?

Metaphors help us to understand complex concepts or situations that we have not yet experienced. A paradigmatic example is the association we usually make between the visual perception of black and white contrast with the antagonism between good and bad in our moral behavior. In his research, Luis M. Martínez Otero questions whether this metaphor, which crosses the boundaries between abstract and physical, has any biological basis. The most recent results show that both visual and moral decisions use the same neural mechanisms: we always see and decide depending on the context. What does this new evidence tell us about the functioning and evolution of the brain?

19.00 - 20.00

Jordi Camí, Luis Martínez Otero and Miguel Ángel Gea | How do we perceive reality?

Our perception is based on the production of interferences, hypotheses about the world with which we anticipate reality. In this sense, the human being is a predictive machine dedicated to minimizing discrepancies between what we expect and what actually happens. For this very reason, surprise is the common way the organism reacts when a prediction error is produced. Combining magic with scientific dissemination and philosophical reflection, this session explores how our internal model of reality is constructed. How do we perceive and extract the meanings of the world around us? What are the limits of what is possible in relation to what is perceived as real or unreal?

Both sessions will be presented by Arcardi Navarro, ICREA research professor.