Gifford Lecture Series 2012

Part of my week will involve viewing the following Gifford lectures from Dr. Sarah Coakley:

In this series, Professor Sarah Coakley explores the implications of recent developments in the mathematical study of “evolutionary dynamics” for ethics, metaphysics, the philosophy of science and theology.  Arguing that the last decades of the twentieth century saw a notable failure of nerve in universal accounts of religious rationality, and a simultaneous obsession with the “selfishness” of evolutionary phenomena, Coakley seeks to clarify afresh the importance of the countervailing sacrificial dimensions of evolutionary processes for central issues in the philosophy of science and ethics. Thereby she moves to suggest a transformed way forward in the task of “natural theology”.

Sacrifice Regained: Evolution, Cooperation and God

1. Stories of Evolution, Stories of SacrificeTuesday 17 April 2012
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2. Cooperation, alias Altruism:  Game Theory and Evolution Reconsidered
Thursday 19 April 2012
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3. Ethics, Cooperation and Human Motivation:  Assessing the Project of Evolutionary Ethics
Tuesday 24 April 2012
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4. Ethics, Cooperation and the Gender Wars:  Prospects for a New Asceticism
Thursday 26 April 2012
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5. Teleology Reviewed: A New 'Ethico-Teleological' Argument for God's ExistenceTuesday 1 May 2012
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6. Reconceiving 'Natural Theology':  Meaning, Sacrifice and God
Thursday 3 May 2012
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