Darwin and Human Nature
Thursday, 19 April 2012 to Friday, 20 April 2012
Location: CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT

Programme

Thursday 19 April

 

10.30 - 11.00

Registration and coffee

11.00 - 11.15

Welcome and Introduction

11.15 - 13.00

Session 1: Animal/human
(Chair: Paul White, Darwin Correspondence Project and HPS, Cambridge)

  • David Feller (HPS, Cambridge)
    Darwin and emotional effluvium:  what the dog's nose knows
  • Kathryn Tabb (Philosophy, Pittsburg)
    Darwin and medical associationism
  • Tim Crane (Philosophy, Cambridge)
    What is at issue in the debate about human uniqueness?

13.00 - 14.00

Lunch 

14.00 - 15.45

Session 2: Savagery/self-hood/environment
(Chair: Gillian Beer, English, Cambridge)

  • Philippa Levine (History, University of Texas, Austin)
    Darwin and the savages revisited
  • Tiffany Watt-Smith (English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London)
    Theatricality, emotions and the self in Darwin's 'Expression'
  • Angelique Richardson (English, Exeter)
    Darwin, Galton and the environment

15.45 - 16.15

Tea/ coffee

16.15 - 17.45

Session 3: Nature/culture
(Chair: Tim Lewens, HPS, Cambridge)

  • Catherine Wilson (Philosophy, Aberdeen)
    Moral sensibility in Darwin’s notebooks
  • John Dupré (Philosophy, Exeter)
    Post-genomic biology and human freedom

17.45 – 18.45

Drinks reception

 

Friday 20 April

 

10.30 – 12.00

Session 4: Man/woman
(Chair: Carolyn Burdett, English, Birkbeck)

  • Elizabeth Wilson (Women's Studies, Emory University)
    Co-adaptations of gender: feminism, Darwin and Lamarckian habit
  • Paul White (DCP and HPS)
    Darwinian masculinities

12.00 - 13.00 

Lunch 

13.00 -14.15

Session 5:  Mind/body/machine
(Chair: Jim Secord, HPS and DCP, Cambridge)

  • Francis Neary (DCP and HPS, Cambridge)
    Animal and human automatism
  • Roger Smith (History of Science, Moscow)
    Evolution and mental agency

14.15 - 14.45

Tea/ coffee

14.45 - 16.15

Session 6: Roundtable and discussion

  • Panellists
    Tim Lewens
    Carolyn Burdett
    Gillian Beer
    Jim Secord

16.15

Close