CRASSH

Why aren't the social sciences Darwinian?

Thursday, 14 May 2009 to Saturday, 16 May 2009
Location: Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge

Thurs 14th May
17.00-18.00	Public lecture open to all. No registration required! Keynote 1: Michael Tomasello (Max Planck Institute) The human adaptation for culture Human beings are biologically adapted for cultural life in ways that other primates are not. Humans have unique motivations and cognitive skills for understanding other persons as cooperative agents with whom one can share emotions, experience, and collaborative actions (shared intentionality). The motivations and skills involved emerge in human ontogeny at around one year of age, as infants begin to participate with other persons in various kinds of collaborative and joint attentional activities (cultural practices), including linguistic communication. Chimpanzees understand important aspects of intentional action - specifically that others pursue goals and perceive things relevant to those goals - especially in competitive situations. But our nearest primate relatives do not seem to have the motivations and cognitive skills necessary to engage in activities involving collaboration, shared intentionality, and, in general, things cultural.
18.00-19.00	Wine Reception
Fri 15th May
9.30-9.55	Registration (required for all Friday and Saturday talks)
9.55-10.00	Welcome
10.00-10.30	Session 1. Chair: Michael Lamb Keynote 2: Robert Foley (University of Cambridge) Unknown boundaries: human evolution and the social sciences
10.30-11.00	Jamie Tehrani (University of Durham) The past and future of anthropology as a four-field evolutionary science
11.00-11.30	Tea/Coffee
11.30-12.00	Session 2. Chair: Marta Mirazon Lahr Geoffrey Hodgeson (University of Hertfordshire) Generalizing Darwinism to social evolution: Some early attempts
12.00-12.30	Alex Mesoudi (Queen Mary, University of London) Prospects for an evolutionary synthesis in the social/cultural sciences
12.30-13.00	John van Wyhe (University of Cambridge) Two cultures to two families - a social approach to why the social sciences are not Darwinian
13.00-14.00	Lunch Break
14.00-14.30	Session 3. Chair: Daniel Nettle Keynote 3: Ruth Mace & George Perry (UCL) Human behaviour: Why is an evolutionary perspective often rejected?
14.30-15.00	Stephen Levinson (Max Planck Institute) Rethinking the language sciences
15.00-15.30	Simon Kirby (University of Edinburgh) Language as an evolutionary system
15.30-16.00	Tea/Coffee Break
16.00-16.30	Session 4. Chair: TBA Lewis Wolpert (UCL) Evolution of causal beliefs and religion
16.30-17.00	Gillian Bentley (University of Durham) The adoption of evolutionary theory in medical and health-related research

Sat 16th May
10.00-10.30	Session 1. Chair: Robert Layton Keynote 4: David S. Wilson (Binghamton University) Evolution and human affairs at the level of research, higher education, and public policy
10.30-11.00	William Brown (Brunel University) Darwinian aesthetics and the unity of knowledge
11.00-11.30	Tea/Coffee Break
11.30-12.00	Session 2. Chair: Tim Lewens Raymond Corbey (Leiden University) Hobbes, Kant and the disciplinary identity of ethnology
12.00-12.30	Robert Layton (University of Durham) Co-evolution: a means to reconcile the social and natural sciences?
12.30-13.00	Tom Dickins (University of East London) Mother Nature's Tolerant Ways: Why non-genetic inheritance has nothing to do with evolution
13.00-14.00	Lunch Break
14.00-14.30	Session 3. Chair: Alex Mesoudi Keynote 5: Robin Dunbar (University of Oxford) Putting evolution back into the social sciences
14.30-15.00	Daniel Nettle (University of Newcastle) Perhaps the social sciences are Darwinian, but haven't realised it yet
15.00-15.30	Tea/Coffee Break
15.30-16.00	Session 4. Chair: Tom Dickins Felix Riede (UCL) Why isn’t archaeology (more) Darwinian? A historical perspective
16.00-16.30	Tim Lewens (University of Cambridge) Darwinizing History: What are the payoffs?
16.30-17.00	Discussion (Chair: Robert Layton, University of Durham)