Tomorrow Thursday at 6 PM, Casa América presents in its Miguel de Cervantes Room the book From Human Nature to Modern Liberalism: A Scientific Perspective, by Álvaro Fischer (in the photo). Free entry until full capacity is reached.
The presentation will consist of a conversation between Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, journalist, politician, historian, and deputy for Madrid, and the author, moderated by John Müller, journalist and former deputy director of the newspaper El Mundo.
This book attempts to explain why the liberal doctrine is the most appropriate for organizing life in contemporary societies, given the evolutionary traits that our species possesses, and the social dynamics they lead to. To this end, the book is based on the evolutionary perspective of social sciences, as understood by those who have developed it, which describes not only how we are, but also why we are the way we are. This allows us to relate our behavioral traits – part of human nature – with the moral feelings with which we judge those behaviors, and to understand how both conspire to produce the political doctrines with which we try to guide our societies.
It is conceived as a musical piece in six movements. The first two are dedicated to human behavior and its moral psychology, according to the modern perspective of current science, and how the concept of human nature is understood in that context. The next is a brief interlude that discusses the epistemological validity of the above. Then, a movement in which the permanent doubts in which contemporary political debate unfolds are made explicit, and one in which the pillars on which a modern liberal society should be founded are presented, consistent with everything developed up to that moment. The last is an epilogue, which raises the future challenges of the human project.
Álvaro Fischer combines his academic and business career with his intellectual activity. He is one of the founders of the Resiter group of companies and has been part of the board of various companies. He was president of the Institute of Engineers, the first rector of the Technological University of Chile INACAP, and president of Fundación Chile. He is a member of the New York Academy of Science, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, as well as president of the Fundación Ciencia y Evolución. He is currently the President of the National Council for Innovation for Development (CNID). Fischer has also developed an intense intellectual activity linked to the sciences of evolution and human behavior. His thinking is characterized by integrating approaches from biology, psychology, and economics to analyze human nature and its social implications. He has published various essays, among which Of Liberal Nature (2017), his most influential work, stands out.
