Last December CARTA, the UC San Diego / Salk Center for Advanced Research and Training in Anthropogeny, brought together experts to discuss The Evolution of Human Altruism, that uniquely human (or is it?) trait that would compel one, as Donald Pfaff of Rockefeller University related, to throw himself in front of a speeding train to save the life of another human being that he has never met – or with whom he doesn’t even share the same racial phenotype….while leaving his own offspring behind…
Why? Do lions do that? Do chimps? How do we even define altruism? How do we study it? Does it define us, and our humanity?
In the same inimitable manner as all CARTA symposia, the eminent experts from all fields help us grapple with this enduring, very human, mystery.
CARTA’s Evolution of Human Altruism series premieres April 13 at 9pm on UCSD-TV and continues each subsequent Wednesday through April.