Invited Lecture: Frans De Waal

Prof. Frans B. M. de Waal is a Dutch/American behavioral biologist known for his work on the social intelligence of primates. In this lecture, the acclaimed author of The Age of Empathy (2009) shows how empathy comes naturally to a great variety of animals, including humans. In his work with monkeys and apes, de Waal has found many cases of one individual coming to another’s rescue and he argues that understanding empathy’s survival value in evolution can help to build a more just society based on a more accurate view of human nature. De Waal is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, in Atlanta, Georgia