1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
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In secular culture, pleasure is widely regarded as the supreme value, the goal for which one lives, and the justification for one’s labors. Although religions through the centuries have protested against pleasure as a distraction from spiritual goals, the voice of religion is now hesitant and ineffective, and pressure from consumer culture goes largely unresisted. But what exactly is pleasure?
In his book, How Pleasure Works: The New Science on Why We Like What We Like (Norton, June 2010), Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale University, seeks to answer this question. After his presentation, psychiatrist Peter Kramer and philosopher Roger Scruton discussed his findings and what they mean for our understanding of human behavior. Sally Satel, M.D., resident scholar at AEI, moderated the discussion.
| 1:45 p.m. | Registration | |
| 2:00 | Introduction: | Sally Satel, AEI |
| 2:15 | Presenter: | Paul Bloom, Yale University |
| 2:45 |
Discussant: | Peter Kramer, Brown University |
| 3:15 | Question and Answer |
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| 3:45 | Discussant: | Roger Scruton, AEI |
| 4:15 | Question and Answer | |
| 5:00 | Adjournment and Wine and Cheese Reception | |
Speaker biographies
Paul Bloom is a professor of psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with a special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is a former president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and coeditor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field. Mr. Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Atlantic. He is the author or editor of five books, including How Children Learn the Meanings of Words (MIT Press, 2000) and Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human (Basic Books, 2004). His newest book, How Pleasure Works, was published in June 2010.
Peter Kramer, M.D., is the author of Against Depression (Penguin, 2005), Should You Leave? (Scribner, 1997), the novel Spectacular Happiness (Scribner, 2001), and the international bestseller Listening to Prozac (Viking, 1993). His current book is the Eminent Lives volume Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind (HarperCollins, 2006). Dr. Kramer was a principal host of the nationally syndicated public-radio show The Infinite Mind. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, the Times Literary Supplement (London), and U.S. News & World Report, among other publications. He has repeatedly appeared on the major television and public-radio news and commentary shows, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, Fresh Air, and Oprah. Dr. Kramer lives and practices in Providence, Rhode Island, where he is a clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University.
Roger Scruton, a writer, philosopher, and public commentator, has written widely on political and cultural issues as well as aesthetics, with particular attention to music and architecture. The author of more than thirty books, his most recent ones include Culture Counts: Faith and Healing in a World Besieged (Encounter Books, 2007); A Political Philosophy (Continuum Books, 2006), a response to the development and decline of Western civilization; and The West and the Rest (ISI Books, 2001), an analysis of the values held by the West and how they are distinct from those held by other cultures. Mr. Scruton is also a founding editor of the Salisbury Review and the founder of Claridge Press, which is now part of Continuum International Publishing Group. He writes a column on cultural matters for the American Spectator and on wine for the New Statesman in Britain.
Sally Satel, M.D., a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine, examines mental-health policy and political trends in medicine. Her publications include PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Basic Books, 2001); The Health Disparities Myth (AEI Press, 2006); When Altruism Isn't Enough: The Case for Compensating Organ Donors (AEI Press, 2009); and One Nation Under Therapy (St. Martin's Press, 2005), coauthored with Christina Hoff Sommers.
