Read Montague, a computational neuroscientist at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, will be featured in a conversation discussing the neurobiological basis of “Conscience” on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at the San Diego Supercomputer Center auditorium.

Montague, a professor and the director of both the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and Computational Psychiatry Unit of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, will join with Patricia Church, a neuro-philosopher at the University of California, San Diego, to dig down to the neurobiological roots of our moral beliefs.

For instance, why does Hamlet say, “There is nothing wrong nor right but thinking makes it so?” and why does Kant’s gravestone state his awe for ‘the starry sky above me and the moral law within me?”

The conversation will explore how people tell right from wrong. It is a feature of Science In Society’s “Collaboratory,” which examines the integral role of science in law, policy, social institutions, and culture.