The Emergence of the Human Face

A presentation with Kenneth Miller, Professor of Biology, Brown University, Martin Nowak, Professor of Biology and Mathematics, Harvard University, and Richard Potts, Director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian, moderated by Maria Teresa Landi, Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on the degree to which evolution explains who we are.  

We live in a time when reason tends to be reduced to its scientific-mathematical capabilities, and human nature to its biological component. For example, Sir Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule, wrote at the beginning of The Astonishing Hypothesis (1994): "The Astonishing Hypothesis is that 'You,' your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and your free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules." 

But … is that reasonable? What are the features that define human beings? Can evolution explain human nature? How does biological evolution work in the first place? These are some questions that the speakers will address.

To learn more, click here: A collection of readings for the event: The Emergence of the Human Face

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