Speaker(s)
Description
Volker Sommer, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology in the University of London, will talk about the necessity of lying. His recent book, In Praise of Lying, stresses the fact that all of us must sometimes lie in order to survive. Where social dynamics are highly competitive, as they among monkeys and apes, fluency in deception is is a matter of life and death. Deceptive body language, such as feints that mislead as to the intended direction of attack or flight, is observed in many animal species including wolves.
Class syllabus