A self-fulfilling prophecy : linking belief to behavior

Moderated by Esther Sternberg (author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-being), philosopher Simon Critchley (the New School for Social Research), cognitive scientist Shaun Gallagher (University of Central Florida), and physicist V.V. Raman (Rochester Institute of Technology) survey how the self is shaped by interactions with the environment; how free will, responsibility, and other traits emerge; and how character and virtue become targets for constructing the self. The following is an edited transcript of the discussion that occurred April 28, 2011, 7:00-8:15 PM, at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City.