PROGRAMME >> EVENT #24  

saturday aug. 30.time 23.15.spalti Fortezza Firmafede - 3,00
Piergiorgio Odifreddi - Reads Darwin. In and About Man

listen to the audio file

Although On the Origin of Species contained only a fleeting reference to man, it was clear that the evolution theory radically thwarted his claim to being created “in the image and ressemblance of God”, justifying instead the assumption that man comes from some common progenitor of the Great Apes. These heretical ideas were thoroughly developed in Darwin’s second masterpiece The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), from which some passages will be read, along with another book about man which is a kind of sequel to it: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

Piergiorgio Odifreddi
studied Mathematics in Italy, then in the USA and in the USSR. He is currently Professor of Logics at the University of Turin and at Cornell University. He writes regularly for La Repubblica, L’Espresso, Le Scienze as well as for the Italian radio and television. In 1998, UMI-Italy’s Mathematicians’ Association awarded him the Premio Galileo. Among his books: Il Vangelo secondo la Scienza. Le religioni alla prova del nove (Einaudi, 1999); C’era una volta un paradosso (Einaudi, 2001); Il diavolo in cattedra (Einaudi, 2003); La scienza espresso (Einaudi, 2006); Penna, pennello e bacchetta (Laterza, 2005); Longanesi: Il matematico impertinente (Longanesi, 2005); Incontri con menti straordinarie (Longanesi, 2006); Perché non possiamo essere cristiani (e meno che mai cattolici) (Longanesi, 2007); Il matematico impenitente (Longanesi, 2008); La Via Lattea, with Sergio Valzania (Longanesi, 2008); In principio era Darwin (Longanesi, 2009); Il club dei matematici solitari (Mondadori, 2009).