TANS LECTURE

The Evolution of War and Peace

MON 17 NOVEMBER, 20:00
Franz Palm Lecture Hall, Tongersestraat 53      

Prof. Carel van Schaik
Professor Emeritus, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich

When asked whether they like to engage in warfare, most people answer no. When asked whether there will always be wars, most people answer yes. In order to explain this paradox, Carel van Schaik will examine the evolution of war from its animal origins through human evolution until the present time, and derive the conditions favouring war and peaceful coexistence.

Carel van Schaik is a Dutch evolutionary and behavioural biologist. After positions at Utrecht University and at Princeton University, he became associate professor at the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University in Durham in 1989. In 2004 he moved to the University of Zurich where he became full professor of Biological Anthropology and Director of the Anthropological Institute and Museum. 
He is a bestselling author, known for his Sexual Selection in Primates: New and Comparative Perspectives. Together with Kai Michel, he wrote The Good Book of Human Nature, The Truth about Eve, Mensch sein: Von der Evolution für die Zukunft lernen (Being Human, learning from Evolution for the Future) and most recently, also with author Harald Meller, Die Evolution der Gewalt (The Evolution of Violence).

The Tans Lecture is organised every year to honour Dr. J. Tans (1912-1993), the founding father of Maastricht University.