Adam Barnett
Ernst Strungmann Forum – Cultural Evolution – May 2012
May 27th – June 1st, 2012 – To explore the role of cultural evolution in explaining human social structure, technology, language and religion…
Jonathan Haidt – The Righteous Mind
April 2nd, 2012 – Part of our “Cognitive Science of Morality” lecture series.
The Cognitive Science of Morality Lecture Series 2011/12
There is a near universal interest in morality that has sparked thought-provoking inquiry for thousands of years. Much of that inquiry proceeded without the benefit of modern cognitive science, but that is now changing. And the change promises to shed new light on morality, particularly its practices, development, and the psychology behind ethical thought. In […]
Creating Consilience: Integrating the Sciences and the Humanities – Edward Slingerland & Mark Collard
Description Calls for a “consilient” or “vertically integrated” approach to the study of human mind and culture have, for the most part, been received by scholars in the humanities with either indifference or hostility. One reason for this is that consilience has often been framed as bringing the study of humanistic issues into line with […]
The Emerging Science of Culture Lecture Series 2010/11
September 13th, 2010 Robert Boyd UCLA “How Culture Transformed Human Evolution.” Humans are a paradoxical species. On the one hand we are exceptionally good at adapting. Humans occupy a wider ecological and geographic range than any other species using a much greater range of subsistence strategies and social organizations. On the other hand, much of […]
Psychology Studies Biased toward Western Undergrads – HECC on Scientific American Podcast
Anyone familiar with psychology has probably heard a statement like this: A significant percentage of male & female undergraduates displayed X when prompted by Y. And typically the conclusion of the study is something like: So humans display X in the presence of Y. Taking the behavior of undergrads and extending it to all of humanity is an […]
Jessica Tracy – The Nature of Pride
Part of the Green College seminar series, 2009: One of the major findings in the behavioral and social sciences is the discovery that a small set of “basic” emotions have distinct, universally recognized, nonverbal expressions. This finding promoted widespread acceptance of Darwin’s (1872) claim that emotions are an evolved part of human nature, but also […]
Early HECC Lecture Series – 2009/10
September 16th, 2009 Yoel Rak Tel Aviv “Lucy’s Place in Nature.” October 19th, 2009 Ben Marwick University of Washington “Pleistocene Exchange Networks as Evidence for Hominin Language Evolution.” November 23rd, 2009 Jessica Tracy UBC “The Nature of Pride.” One of the major findings in the behavioral and social sciences is the discovery that a small […]
Integrating Science and the Humanities – 2009
The old website of this conference seems to be gone, but many of the videos are archived here.
What Science Offers the Humanities – Edward Slingerland
What Science Offers the Humanities examines some of the deep problems facing current approaches to the study of culture. It focuses especially on the excesses of postmodernism, but also acknowledges serious problems with postmodernism’s harshest critics. In short, Edward Slingerland argues that in order for the humanities to progress, its scholars need to take seriously […]