Name: 'Being Human: The Evolution of Animal Consciousness'
Start: 2024-09-20T16:30:00+01:00
End: 2024-09-20T18:00:00+01:00
Location: The Francis Crick Institute, Auditorium 2

'Being Human: The Evolution of Animal Consciousness'

Peter Godfrey-Smith Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, gives the fifth Being Human talk.
About this Event

The present landscape of biological science raises many issues touching the meaning and challenges of ‘being human’, from AI to biological sex, consciousness, and free will. The Being Human lectures provide a focused exploration of these issues from leading experts in the philosophy of science, humanities, and other fields, offering a forum for broadening scientific thinking.

This series is co-organised by James DiFrisco and Güneş Taylor from the Crick with Professor Barry Smith from the University of London's Institute of Philosophy.

The lecture will be given by Professor Godfrey-Smith in the Crick Auditorium, followed by a facilitated panel discussion. These lectures are non-technical and accessible to a multidisciplinary audience. There will be a short reception and an opportunity to meet the speaker after the talk.

Copies of Peter's latest book will be available for purchase, provided by Primrose Hill Books.

Our speaker: Godfrey-Smith's main research interests lie in the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind. He also engages in work related to pragmatism, particularly the philosophy of John Dewey, as well as general philosophy of science, metaphysics, and epistemology. He has authored seven books: Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature (Cambridge, 1996), Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Chicago, 2003), Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection (Oxford, 2009), which won the 2010 Lakatos Award, Philosophy of Biology (Princeton, 2014), Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness (FSG, 2016), Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind (FSG and William Collins, 2020), and Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World (FSG and William Collins, 2024)