Neuroscience and the Soul – Dr. William Hurlbut

15 snips

Nov 10, 2025

Dr. William B. Hurlbut, a physician and adjunct professor at Stanford, dives into the intersection of neuroscience, bioethics, and the concept of the soul. He argues for the unique role of the human soul beyond mere information processing, stressing the importance of rationality and moral self-awareness. Hurlbut challenges transhumanist claims, underlining the significance of tacit knowledge and embodied experiences. He emphasizes that suffering can lend meaning to life and explores how parenthood shapes human identity, ultimately advocating for humility in the face of biotechnological advancements.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Soul As Organizing Principle

William Hurlbut frames “soul” as the organizing principle of embodied, personal, and purposeful life rooted in Aristotelian-Aquinian thought.
He argues this concept remains necessary to orient technology and understand human destiny beyond biochemical description.

INSIGHT

Tech Convergence Raises Ethical Urgency

Hurlbut warns converging biotech and information technologies blur human, animal, and machine boundaries and create profound ethical questions.
He says we need a proper concept of human nature to govern these technologies wisely.

INSIGHT

Science And Subjectivity Are Complementary

Hurlbut contrasts two self-understandings: the objective scientific view and the subjective personal experience of consciousness.
He insists many human phenomena remain beyond current scientific tools and require humble, comprehensive wisdom.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Dr. William Hurlbut explores the profound questions raised by neuroscience, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence, emphasizing that the human soul—understood as the organizing principle of embodied, personal, and purposeful life—remains irreducibly distinct from animal, mechanical, and computational processes.

This lecture was given on October 7th, 2025, at The Ohio State University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

William B. Hurlbut is a physician and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University Medical Center. After receiving his undergraduate and medical training at Stanford, he completed postdoctoral studies in theology and medical ethics, studying with Robert Hamerton-Kelly, the Dean of the Chapel at Stanford, and subsequently with the Rev. Louis Bouyer of the Institut Catholique de Paris.

His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology and philosophy of biology. He was instrumental in establishing the first course in biomedical ethics at Stanford Medical Center and subsequently taught bioethics to over six thousand Stanford undergraduate students in the Program in Human Biology.

Dr. Hurlbut is the author of numerous publications on science and ethics including the co-edited volume Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue (2002, Oxford University Press), and “Science, Religion and the Human Spirit” in the Oxford Handbook of Science and Religion. He has organized and co-chaired three multi-year interdisciplinary faculty projects at Stanford University, “Becoming Human: The Evolutionary Origins of Spiritual, Religious and Moral Awareness,” “Brain Mind and Emergence,” and the ongoing “The Boundaries of Humanity: Human, Animals, and Machines in the Age of Biotechnology.” In addition, he was Co-leader, together with U.C. Berkeley professor Jennifer Doudna of “The challenge and opportunity of gene editing: a project for reflection, deliberation and education.”

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, Embodied Cognition, Human Dignity, Imago Dei, Neurobiology, Personal Identity, Rational Soul, Reductionism, Transhumanism