November 8, 1995
Contact: Jamie Lawson, (615) 322-2706
Author Robert Wright to Speak on Evolutionary Psychological
Aspects of Love,
Monogamy and Self-Deception Nov. 14
NASHVILLE, Tenn. --Robert Wright, journalist and author of "The
Moral Animal--Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary
Psychology" will be the next Project Dialogue speaker. Wright's lecture
will be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, in 103 Wilson Hall. A reception
and book signing will follow.
This year's events are centered around the theme "On Trial: Truth
and Representation" and have included lectures by law professor Anita
Hill, author Neil Sheehan, author Tim O'Brian, gay military official Margarethe
Cammermeyer and Holocaust lecturer Anna Rosmus. Vanderbilt graduate Ben
Papa is coordinating this year's effort.
Wright's talk, which is free and open to the public, will address many
of the same issues of human nature brought up in his new book. He will attempt
to answer questions about the true nature of monogamous relationships, the
kinds of self-deception favored by evolution and the purity of love. Wright
is an authority on the new science of evolutionary psychology, which explains
these types of inquiries by observing natural selection and social and moral
development over the ages.
"Natural selection, for better or worse, is our creator, but it
isn't God; the impulses it implanted into our minds aren't necessarily good,
and they aren't wholly beyond resisting," Wright said.
New research in this field continues to find new correlations between
genetic evolution and human behavior.
"If we want to live a truly moral life," Wright stated in
his new book, "we must first understand what kind of animal we are."
"The Moral Animal" gives explanations and synthesis of new
research in evolutionary psychology as well as on its relevance to today's
most pressing issues. The book was chosen by The New York Times as one of
the best books of 1994.
Wright is currently a senior editor of The New Republic, a leading
opinion magazine, and has written for The Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker and
Time.
Project Dialogue will conclude its fall programming with a talk by
Cleve Jones, founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and the San
Francisco AIDS Foundation. He will speak on "Tales from the Quilt"
and the ways AIDS has been represented to the public. His lecture, which
is free and open to the public, will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, in
103 Wilson Hall.
-VU-
Vanderbilt
Office of News and Public Affairs
HTML Translation by Billy Kingsley
Document last updated Jan. 27, 1997