Diane Rosenfeld Speaks Today at HLS

Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS) Speakers Series:

Diane Rosenfeld: “Penn State, Intervention, and a Theory of Patriarchal Violence” 11/30/201

Join SALMS for the final event of our Fall Speakers Series, when HLS’s Diane Rosenfeld will present on “Penn State, Intervention, and a Theory of Patriarchal Violence” on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, at noon in Austin West.

Rosenfeld will respond to Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham’s October 12 SALMS talk on “Sexual Disparities and the Evolution of Patriarchy,” drawing out the legal implications of Professor Wrangham’s scientific findings. The child sexual abuse scandal swirling around the Penn State football program will serve as a point of departure for these deeper conclusions.

As always, SALMS will serve free burritos – come enjoy SALMS food and company before finals season begins in earnest!

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Related Situationist posts:

• Dr. Richard Wrangham at Harvard Law Tomorrow
• The Situation of Penn State Bystanders
• The Bystander Effect at Penn State
• 25 Mil­lion Years of Us vs. Them
• The Endowment Effect in Chimpanzees – Abstract,
• Even monkeys know when they’re being treated unfairly,
• Monkey Fairness,
• Felix Warneken at Harvard Law School
• The Embodied Situation of Power
• The Primitive Appeal of The Color Red
• The Situational Power of Appearance and Posture,
• The Situation of Imitation and Mimickry,
• Michael McCullough on the Situation of Revenge and Forgiveness,
• New Study Looks at the Roots of Empathy,
• The Situation of Trust, and
• Laurie Santos on the Evolutionary Situation of Cognitive Biases.

Dr. Robert Trivers at Harvard Law – Thursday

Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS) Speakers Series:

Robert Trivers, Rutgers Biologist and Anthropologist: “Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling others the better to fool ourselves.” 

Thursday, 11/3, 12-1 pm, Austin West; 

SALMS serves lunch: Free Burritos!

Why do we deceive ourselves so often in our daily lives?  Robert Trivers, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, argues that  self-deception evolved in the service of deceit—the better to fool others. We do it for biological reasons—in order to help us survive and procreate. From viruses mimicking host behavior to humans misremembering (sometimes intentionally) the details of a quarrel, science has proven that the deceptive one can always outwit the masses. But we undertake this deception at our own peril.  Trivers will present findings from his new book, “The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life.”

Trivers won the Crafoord Prize in Biosciences in 2007 for his fundamental analysis of social evolution, conflict, and cooperation. Harvard’s Steven Pinker has described Trivers as an “under-appreciated genius”: “In an astonishing burst of creative brilliance, Trivers wrote a series of papers in the early 1970s that explained each of the five major kinds of human relationships: male with female, parent with child, sibling with sibling, acquaintance with acquaintance, and a person with himself or herself. . . . Trivers’ ideas are, if such a thing is possible, even more important than the countless experiments and field studies they kicked off. They belong in the category of ideas that are obvious once they are explained, yet eluded great minds for ages; simple enough to be stated in a few words, yet with implications we are only beginning to work out.”

Read more at the SALMS website.

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Related Situationist posts:

• 25 Mil­lion Years of Us vs. Them
• “The Endowment Effect in Chimpanzees – Abstract,”
• “Even monkeys know when they’re being treated unfairly,”
• “Monkey Fairness,”
• Felix Warneken at Harvard Law School
• The Embodied Situation of Power
• The Primitive Appeal of The Color Red
• “The Situational Power of Appearance and Posture,”
• “The Situation of Imitation and Mimickry,”
• “Michael McCullough on the Situation of Revenge and Forgiveness,” 
• “New Study Looks at the Roots of Empathy,”
• “The Endowment Effect in Chimpanzees – Abstract,”
• “The Situation of Political Animals,” 
• “The Situation of Trust,” and
  
• Laurie Santos on the Evolutionary Situation of Cognitive Biases.

Dr. Richard Wrangham at Harvard Law Tomorrow

Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS) Speakers Series:
Richard Wrangham, Harvard Primatologist: “Sexual Disparities and the Evolution of Patriarchy”
Wednesday, 10/12, 12-1 pm, Austin West
SALMS serves lunch: Free Burritos!

What can primates teach us about the evolutionary bases of rape, murder, and patriarchy? For several decades, Richard Wrangham, the Ruth Moore Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Biological Anthropology at Harvard, has studied primates in the wild. His work on the ecological and behavior comparisons of chimpanzees and humans has been his greatest contribution to the animal behavior literature. His insights into the cultural similarities between humans and chimpanzees–including our unique tendencies to form murderous alliances and engage in recreational sexual activity–has had profound affects on how scientists analyze primate behavior, non-human and human alike.

In addition to his exhaustive peer-reviewed journal publications, as author of Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, Chimpanzee Cultures, and as co-editor of Primate Societies, Professor Wrangham’s important observations and theoretical contributions to the field of primate socio-behavior are covered in a variety of works, which range from the textbook to popular science manual. In recent years, Professor Wrangham has been named as a trustee to several important primatological research organizations, including the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Jane Goodall Institute and is Chair of the Great Ape World Heritage Species Project.

Read more at the SALMS website..

* * *

Related Situationist posts:

• 25 Mil­lion Years of Us vs. Them
• “The Endowment Effect in Chimpanzees – Abstract,”
• “Even monkeys know when they’re being treated unfairly,”
• “Monkey Fairness,”
• Felix Warneken at Harvard Law School
• The Embodied Situation of Power
• The Primitive Appeal of The Color Red
• “The Situational Power of Appearance and Posture,”
• “The Situation of Imitation and Mimickry,”
• “Michael McCullough on the Situation of Revenge and Forgiveness,” 
• “New Study Looks at the Roots of Empathy,”
• “The Endowment Effect in Chimpanzees – Abstract,”
• “The Situation of Political Animals,” 
• “The Situation of Trust,” and
  
• Laurie Santos on the Evolutionary Situation of Cognitive Biases.