Cognitive Liberty: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
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New developments in neuroscience and technology are putting increasing pressure on fundamental legal notions of autonomy, self-determination, liberty, and conscience. They complicate basic premises and protections that developed over centuries of rumination. Inquiries in neuronal activity challenge the notion of an impenetrable forum internum and conscience; they suggest that the human mind is a flow of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that can be detected, influenced, and even controlled by external and internal factors.
These new developments pose fundamental questions about decision making, moral deliberation, and particular liberties, including religious freedom and the very existence of religion itself. This trans-disciplinary meeting will explore cognitive liberty from global philosophical, psychological, and religious perspectives alongside higher education, intellectual property, criminal justice, public policy, and medicine. It will bring together neuroscientists, philosophers, lawyers, theologians, psychologists, and behavioral scientists to consider moral deliberation, neurorights, and what it means to be free to think and believe in the digital age.
Registration is required
Registration portal for Duke Students, Staff, and Faculty: Click Here
Registration portal for Non-Duke Guests: Click Here
March 05, 2026
Public Lecture:
Finding Meaning: Purpose and Metacognition
5:30pm | Page Auditorium
How can conscious awareness of one’s emotions -- a practice called “metacognition” -- open up new possibilities for true flourishing? Join us for a lecture by Arthur Brooks, Professor at Harvard Business School, and a conversation with Iain McGilchrist (Oxford) and Nita Farahany (Duke Law).
All conference registrants will automatically receive a ticket for the public lecture on March 05th at 5:30pm at Page Auditorium.
For more information on this event, please visit the event page.
All conference registrants will automatically receive a ticket for the public lecture on March 05th at 5:30pm at Page Auditorium.
For more information on this event, please visit the event page.
Friday–Saturday, March 6–7, 2026
Cognitive Liberty: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Duke University
Friday
9:00 AM
Welcome:
- Noah Pickus, Associate Provost, Duke University
- Kerry Abrams, Dean, Duke Law
- Polly Ha, Director, Duke Transformative Ideas
9:10 AM
Introduction: Reinhard Hütter, Duke University
Keynote: Iain McGilchrist (All Souls College, Oxford)
"Born Free, but Everywhere - Suddenly - in Chains"
Moderator: Filipe de Brigard, Duke University
10:15 AM
Break
10:30 AM–12:00 PM
Cognitive Liberty and The Forum Internum and Externum
Moderator: Michael Thate, Princeton University
Panelists:
- Nita Farahany (Duke University) — Cognitive Liberty in the Digital Age
- Jan Christoph Bublitz (University of Hamburg) — Inner Freedom: Human Rights Law's Unfulfilled Promise
- Simon McCarthy-Jones (Trinity College Dublin) — Where Does Thinking Happen? Interdisciplinary Approaches to Cognitive Liberty
12:00–1:00 PM
Lunch
1:00–3:00 PM
Freedom, Religion, and Deliberation
Moderator: Brent Strawn, Duke University
Panelists:
- Francis X. Clooney (Harvard Divinity School) — Mind, Self, and Freedom: What We Learn from Classical Hinduism
- Michael Broyde (Emory University) — AI, Cognitive Liberty, and Jewish Law
- Asma Uddin (Michigan State University) — Cognitive and Religious Liberty and Islamic Thought
3:00–3:15 PM
Break
3:30–5:30 PM
Thinking Rights and Wrongs
Moderator: Andrea Pin, University of Padua
Panelists:
- Peter Levine (Tufts University) — Civics in Higher Education and Cognitive Liberty
- Ruth Okediji (Harvard University) — Copyright as Cognitive Governance
- Allan McCay (University of Sydney) — Criminal Justice and Neurotech
Response: Iain McGilchrist, All Souls, University of Oxford
Saturday
8:30–10:15 AM
Mind, Community, and Autonomy
Moderator: Whittney Barth, Emory University
Panelists:
- Rowan Williams (University of Cambridge) — Being Human: Cognitive Liberty and Christian Thought
- David Wong (Duke University) — Epistemic Humility and Cognitive Flexibility in Confucian and Daoist Thought
- Dean Moyar (Johns Hopkins University) — Autonomy and Conscience in German Idealism
10:15–10:30 AM
Break
10:30 AM–12:15 PM
Mental Integrity and Agency
Moderator: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Duke University
Panelists:
- Peter Zuk (University of Texas at Arlington) — Neurorights, Therapy, and Enhancement
- Peter Ubel (Duke University) — Business Ethics and Psychological Manipulation
- Matthew Johnson (Microsoft Frontier) — Cognitive Responsibility, Agency, and Identity
12:15–1:00 PM
Lunch
1:00–1:30 PM
Concluding Thoughts and Discussion
Moderator: Polly Ha, Duke University
Respondents:
- Sean Kelly, (Harvard College)
- C. Kavin Rowe, (Duke University)
- Nita Farahany, (Duke University)
