David P. Barash, Ph.D., professor of psychology and biology, University of Washington, will present two lectures at the University of New England on March 22 and 23, 2010.

"The Hare and the Tortoise: A General Biocultural Theory of Why People Have So Many Problems" is the topic of a Center for Global Humanities lecture at 6 p.m. March 22 in the WCHP Lecture Hall on UNE's Portland Campus.

"The Three Rs: Retaliation, Revenge, and Redirected Aggression. Some New/Old Insights into the Roots of Violence" is the topic of the UNE New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Studies' 2010 William D. Hamilton Memorial Lecture at 6:00 p.m. on March 23rd in the St. Francis Room of the Ketchum Library on UNE's Biddeford Campus.

Both lectures are free and open to the public.

The Hare and the Tortoise

Biologists and social scientists generally differ substantially in their perception of what it means to be human: the former typically emphasize the role of biology (not surprisingly), whereas the latter concentrate on culture; sometimes the disparity is so great that each side almost literally denies the significance of the other.  

Nearly everyone, however, agrees that the species Homo sapiens is unusual - if not unique - among animals, and also that we are in real trouble, in many respects.  

In his lecture, Professor Barash will argue that both sides are correct (insofar as we are the products of both biological and cultural evolution), and, moreover, that the species-wide difficulties faced by human beings are largely due to the growing disparity between these two factors: biological evolution (the tortoise) on the one hand, and cultural evolution (the hare) on the other.

The Three Rs

Violence is probably the single greatest threat to humanity, and yet its causes are largely unknown; or rather, as Mark Twain noted about how easy it is to stop smoking: its easy to explain violence - there are hundreds of explanations! 

An important and hitherto unappreciated cause of violence - in non-human animals as well as human beings - is what we might call "passing the pain along," the powerful tendency to respond to psychological and physical pain by hurting someone else. Moreover, this "someone else" isn't necessarily the original perpetrator. With distressing frequency, the victim is an innocent bystander, which only further perpetuates the cycle.  Dr. Barash will consider both proximate and ultimate causes of this phenomenon.

David P. Barash is professor of psychology at the University of Washington, Seattle. He was one of the early contributors to the growth of sociobiology, and continues to conduct occasional field studies of animal behavior, especially the evolution and ecology of social systems among free-living animals. 

At present much of his attention is directed to understanding the evolutionary factors that influence human behavior. Since the early 1980s he has been active in researching, promoting, and practicing the field of peace studies.

He is the author and co-author of more than 20 books, including Strange Bedfellows: The Surprising Connection Between Sex, Evolution and Monogamy (2009, with Judith Eve Lipton), Natural Selections: Honest Liars, Selfish Altruists, and Other Realities of Evolution (2007), Madam Bovary's Ovaries: A Darwinian Look at Literature (2005, with Nanelle R. Barash), Revolutionary Biology: The New Gene-Centered View of Life (2003), and The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People (2002, with Judith Eve Lipton) as well as more than 300 scientific papers and popular articles.