BGM Monday Seminars

BGM Monday Seminars

Our guest speaker is Dr Pierre du Rand.  The title of his talk is:  MEMENTO MORI: dying, death and immortality in evolutionary biology and literature Death and its diverse manifestations across the tree of life are a driving force at the heart of many processes and behaviours. It’s one of the reasons, for example, why evolution happens and social philosophers say it is what makes life worth living. Yet it receives surprisingly little attention, especially among biologists. Over the last two decades I have studied what I call programmed organismal death (POD) and will summarise the evidence for why I (and others) believe it evolved by natural selection, however one wishes to define the word programmed. In contrast to the sciences, mortality features extensively in literature (there will be a smattering of examples in this seminar). I’ll discuss the existential nature of fiction (both the writing process and the stories) and tell you how this pulled me into writing. And lastly, we’ll touch on the notion of immortality, what it is and how it may manifest.

📍 JJ Theron hall, UP

🔖 BGM