In this dialogue Dr. Shermer speaks with Dr. David Sloan Wilson, the renowned evolutionary biologist and Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. His previous books include Evolution for Everyone, The Neighborhood Project, Does Altruism Exist? and Darwin’s Cathedral. He is the president of the Evolution Institute and editor in chief of its online magazine, This View of Life. His new book, out this week, is This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution. He and Shermer discuss:
- what it means to complete the Darwinian Revolution
- solving the “is-ought” and “naturalistic fallacy” through proper science and philosophy
- why evolutionary psychology is an equal opportunity offender for liberals and conservatives
- why both laissez faire and command economies fail
- what is morality?
- dispelling the myth of social darwinism
- policy as a branch of biology
- solving the tragedy of the commons through game theory
- the evolutionary origins of good and evil
- natural selection, group selection, multi-level selection and the debate with Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins over selfish genes
- why nationalism is like religion
- how a biologist thinks about immigration, nuclear deterrence and other policy issues
- the rise of nationalism and what to do about it.
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This Science Salon was recorded on February 1, 2019. We apologize for the quality of this recording; it was recorded before Michael moved to the new recording studio. We still have a couple episodes to release from the old studio. Quality of subsequent episodes will be better.
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This episode was released on February 26, 2019.
