Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world.

Guests

• Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Author of The Politics of Heredity and Eugenics at the Edges of Empire, among others.

• Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College.

• Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and best-selling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others.