[evo.theory] Fwd: [Galileo] Public lecture by Professor Peter Singer , University of Sydney, Wednesday 9 February

[Rachael Brown]

FYI - note this event is in Sydney.

R

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Paul Griffiths <paul.griffiths at sydney.edu.au>
> Date: 5 February 2011 3:42:16 PM AEDT
> To: galileo at anu.edu.au
> Subject: [Galileo] Public lecture by Professor Peter Singer , University of Sydney, Wednesday 9 February
> 
> A Sydney Ideas lecture
> 
> Does understanding evolution help us to understand ethics?
> 
> Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne
> 
> Evolution is neutral with regard to values.  It is a fallacy to try to deduce what we ought to do from our understanding of evolution.  But understanding evolution does help us to understand human nature, and since in ethics we are often interested in changing behaviour, evolution gives us valuable clues as to what is, or is not, likely to work.  The first part of the lecture will explore this topic.  In the second part, I will consider the argument that since our moral sense has evolved, it serves to enhance our reproductive fitness, and hence is not a guide to what is really right or wrong.  I shall argue that there is some truth to this claim, but properly understood, it should lead us to scepticism about some ethical views, but not about ethics itself.
> 
> Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford.  He has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University and Monash University. Since 1999 he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.  From 2005, he has also held the part-time position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.  
> 
> Peter Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975.  Since then he has written many other books, including Practical Ethics; The Expanding Circle; How Are We to Live?, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and most recently, The Life You Can Save.   
> 
> 
> Date: Wednesday 9 February, 2011
> Time: 6.00pm to 7.30pm 
> Venue: The Great Hall, Quadrangle, the University of Sydney
> Cost: Free event, however online registration essential
> Web: www.sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas 
> 
> 
> MEREDITH HALL | Program Manager
> Sydney Ideas | Alumni and Community Engagement 
>                                                                 
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> 
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