Last week I had the honour of chairing the annual Auguste Comte Memorial Lecture at the LSE. Our speaker was Joseph Heath. Heath’s work is central to my Business and Organisational course, but in this lecture he spoke about something quite different: the explanation of why humans are so co-operative. The lecture was recorded and can be viewed online here: https://www.youtube.com/live/0yrhgKf4XbY?si=5M1mAUZLit1_0e92.
I found the lecture fascinating. I’m no expert on the details of the science and history. But I strongly agree with Heath’s final remark that philosophers have the special skill of seeing the forest, even if we sometimes gloss over the trees.
Nikhil Venkatesh 