180-Minute Symposium

180-019

Celebrating Darwin at 200: Explaining How Human Morality Evolved

Session Start/End Time:

Monday, Feb 16, 2009, 9:30 AM -12:30 PM

HRC Grand A

Charles Darwin’s achievements are legion. His 200th birthday allows us to reconsider his most culturally profound contribution: an understanding of human evolution. Darwin knew to explain the origin not just of human anatomy, but also of our mental faculties and moral sensibilities. Recently, Darwin’s seminal but incomplete ideas have yielded fruitful research in multiple fields. In particular, we now appreciate how sharing or altruism can emerge through natural selection (Darwin’s other great idea), despite images of a “selfish” process. This session presents current findings from primatology, anthropology, and cognitive science and situates them in historical, philosophical, and educational perspectives.

Organized by:

Douglas Allchin, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Presentations:

  Symposium Organizer--Douglas Allchin, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

  All that Is Most Beautiful: Darwin and the Moral Sentiment--Robert Richards, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

  Good Natured: Primate Origins of the Moral Sentiments--Frans de Waal, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

  The Most Noble Part of Our Nature: Sanctions and Rewards in the History of Conscience--Christopher Boehm, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

  Detestation of Incest: Cognitive Mechanisms for Moral Sentiments--Debra Lieberman, Miami University, Coral Gables, FL

  The Promises and Limits of Naturalized Morality--Robert Richardson, University of Cincinatti, OH

  This Great Question: Teaching the Biology of Morality--Douglas Allchin, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

  Moderator--Thomas Nickles, University of Nevada, Reno, NV