John Cornwell (writer) - Science, Ethics and Humanities

Science, Ethics and Humanities

Cornwell is also Director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge. This is a public understanding of science, medicine and ethics project. In this capacity, since 1990, he has brought together some scientists, philosophers, ethicists, authors and journalists to debate and discuss a range of topics. He criticized "reductionist brain science" for "its failure even to mention, let alone give an account of, human imagination".

In two articles in 2006 and 2007, he criticized Richard Dawkins and his book The God Delusion for what he saw as an extremist tone and for alleged lapses in logic, imagination and understanding. Cornwell followed up these articles with his book Darwin's Angel, published in 2007.

In 2003, he praised Daniel Goldhagen's controversial book, A Moral Reckoning.

In 2009, he was appointed founding Director of the Rustat Conferences, also based at Jesus College, Cambridge. The Rustat Conferences bring together academics with those from politics, business, the media and education to discuss the issues of the day in a roundtable format. The first two meetings in 2009 discussed the global Economic Crisis, and the Future of Democracy. The third Rustat Conferences meeting addressed Infrastructure and the Future of Society - infrastructure for energy security, cities of the future, and water.