What do theory of evolution, intellectual history and philosophy tell us about what we human beings are like? And what resources – intellectual, emotional, moral – we can muster for dealing with the existential risks of our current situation? The talk will offer a speculative overview of these topics, which set the scene for the challenging issues CSER faces.
About the speaker
Professor Jane Heal is a world leading expert in the Philosophy of Mind. Professor Heal studied for her first degree in Cambridge, reading History for two years and then Philosophy (or “Moral Sciences” as it was called in those days) for another two years. She also took her Ph.D. at Cambridge, working on problems on the philosophy of language. After two years post doctoral study in the US (at Princeton and Berkeley) she was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Having taught there for several years she moved back to Cambridge where she is now a Fellow of St John’s College. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1997.
