Morality Before Religion: Empathy, Fairness and Prosocial Primates

In this lecture, primatologist Frans B. M. de Waal will discuss how empathy comes naturally to a great variety of animals, including humans.

Note: This is not a Greater Good Science Event.

In his work with monkeys and apes, Professor Frans B. M. de Waal, a Dutch/American behavioral biologist known for his work on the social intelligence of primates, has found many cases of one individual coming to another’s rescue. He argues that understanding empathy’s survival value in evolution can help to build a more just society based on a more accurate view of human nature. He will elaborate on these views on this lecture.

De Waal is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the author of The Age of Empathy, and Our Inner Ape, among many other books.

For more information please visit: http://events.stanford.edu/events/268/26843/