The biomedical sciences, particularly when it comes to the human brain, mind, and behavior, are as fascinating and promising as their role and results are contested. They are contested because finding answers to the perennial question What is man? has for centuries been regarded an endeavor of philosophy.
Nowadays, the empirical sciences try to contribute ans- wers to this question by themselves – and in this regard they, too, stand in the noble tradition of the ancient Greeks.
Hence, today an additional question has come up over and above the one mentioned, namely: Who has the com- petency and the epistemic tools to provide answers in the query of man’s appropriate self-image?
In particular, some thinkers claim that the biomedical sciences are overly naturalistic, biologistic and/or reductio- nistic. But how naturalistic are these sciences in fact? And if they are naturalistic or else -istic, what does this mean, and which, if any, problem(s) does it pose?
At our conference we want to probe and discuss answers to these and other questions in detail, from a variety of different perspectives, and in a relaxed atmosphere.
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