26/09/2010

Available for over a year

Human beings have got impressively large brains - so why are we still irrational? Professor of Psychology, Laurie Santos, tells us why her work with monkeys can offer us some important pointers about ourselves. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Marilynne Robinson argues that human nature is fundamentally generous spirited. We’re not pre-programmed to be selfish, as some schools of science might have us think. Philosopher Roman Frigg wants scientists to allow him and his philosophical colleagues into their laboratories in order to get them to think differently. But what could scientists gain from this philosophical perspective? Is it irrational to introduce altruistic philosophers and Kapuchin monkeys into the laboratory? Illustration by Emily Kasriel.