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Vincent, N.A. (Nicole)

Research profile

Nicole conducts research into theories of responsibility, and she studies how these theories inform ethical, political and legal debate.

Her postdoc at the 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology aims to develop a philosophically rich and legally useful theory of responsibility that accommodates neuroscience in the right way — i.e. in a way that explains- rather than explaining away responsibility, though without necessarily endorsing any idiosyncratic responsibility practices.

She is the organizer and convenor of the weekly seminar series in the Philosophy Department at TU Delft.

Nicole’s Upcoming Presentations

• Jan 27, 2010: invited speaker on the topic On the Relevance of Neuroscience to Criminal Responsibility. Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
• Mar 24, 2010: invited speaker on the topic On the Relevance of Neuroscience to Criminal Responsibility. Department of Philosophy, York University, Toronto, Canada.

Nicole’s Recent Presentations

• Oct 26-31, 2009: invited speaker on the topic Conceptual and Practical Limitations to the use of Neuroimaging in Informing Responsibility Assessments. Law and Neuroscience conference, Marateia, Italy.  poster and programme
• Oct 20-1, 2009: invited speaker on the topic Cognitive Enhancement and Increased Responsibility. Human Enhancement: What should be permitted? symposium held at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Sep 24-26, 2009: paper presentation on the topic Madness, Badness and Neuroimaging-Based Responsibility Assessments. BRAIN matters - New Directions in Neuroethics conference, Halifax, Canada.  poster and programme
• Aug 24-27, 2009: paper presentation on the topic A Structured Taxonomy of Responsibility Concepts. Moral Responsibility: Neuroscience, Organization & Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
• Aug 20-22, 2009: invited lecture on the topic Thinking About Responsibility. IDEA League Summer School: Responsibility and Engineers of the Future, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
• Jul 6-7, 2009: paper presentation on the topic The Relevance of Neuroscience to the Law’s Responsibility Practices. UCL Law & Neuroscience Colloquium, University College London, London, UK.  poster
• Jul 2-4, 2009: paper presentation on the topic History and Meta Task Responsibilities (w/ Jeroen van den Hoven). European Conference on Computing and Philosophy ‘09, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
• Jun 25, 2009: guest speaker on the topic The neurobiology of crime. What about Responsibility? “Neurobiological Society” seminar organized by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• Apr 29, 2009: guest speaker on the topic of Cognitive Enhancement and Increased Responsibility. James Martin Advanced Research Seminar, University of Oxford, UK.
• Mar 17-18, 2009: invited speaker at the Brains in Dialogue conference. Cambridge, UK.
• Nov 21-23, 2008: Taking Responsibility for Voluntary Disadvantages, conference paper presented at the 3rd International Applied Ethics Conference in Sapporo, University of Hokkaido, Japan.
• Aug 21-26, 2008: A Structured Taxonomy of Responsibility Concepts, conference paper presented at the Sixth European Congress of Analytic Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
• Aug 8, 2008: Functional Neuroimaging and Responsibility Assessments under the Capacity Conception of Responsibility, Guest Speaker, Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Australia.
• Jun 7, 2008: Neuroscience and Legal Responsibility, conference paper presented at the International Workshop on Neuroethics, Centre for Neurosciences of the RWTH, Aachen, Germany.

In Preparation

• Madness, Badness and Neuroimaging-Based Responsibility Assessments
• Cognitive Enhancement and Increased Responsibility
• Is Compatibilism Compatible With Punishment?
• History and Neuroimaging-Based Responsibility Assessments
• Technology and Meta-Task Responsibilities (w/ Jeroen van den Hoven)
• Lack of Control and the Alleged Asymmetry Between Praise and Blame
• Defense of the Capacity-Theoretic Conception of Responsibility
• book editor “Legal Responsibility and Neuroscience”
• book co-editor “Moral Responsibility: beyond free will and determinism”

3TU.Ethics Projects

Neuroethics: ethical, legal and conceptual aspects of neuroscience and neurotechnology

The Brain and the Law

Teaching

Nicole has taught a diverse range of philosophy subjects at previous institutions – e.g. critical thinking, epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of law – and she also has an academic and professional background in information technology and computer science.

In 2009 she is involved in teaching the following subjects:

• Ethics and Law for Computer Scientists (WM0328IN)
• Scientific Integrity (PROM-6 Scientific Integrity)

The latter course is based around a teaching module which she recently prepared on the topic of scientific integrity. This was done as part of a larger initiative to develop ethics courses for PhD students in the field of engineering.