FMI Public Speaker Series — February 15
Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
Edward Slingerland — Distinguished University Scholar
and Professor of Philosophy
The Free Market Institute welcomes Edward Slingerland (The University of British Columbia) to deliver a public lecture at Texas Tech University on Thursday, February 15, 2024. The lecture will take place in the Frazier Alumni Pavilion (15th Street and Akron Avenue), from 5:30 – 6:30 PM.
All attendees are welcome to join the FMI and guest speaker Edward Slingerland for a reception and book signing from 4:45-5:25 PM, prior to the lecture, in the Frazier Pavilion. Copies of Dr. Slingerland’s book, Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, will be available for purchase on-site.
The event is free and open to the TTU community and the general public.
About the Program
Edward Slingerland aims to cut through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication in order to provide a rigorous, scientifically-grounded explanation for our love of alcohol.
Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Dr. Slingerland argues that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers.
Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication.
For more information about this program and other upcoming events, visit www.events.fmi.ttu.edu or contact the Free Market Institute at free.market@ttu.edu or (806) 742-7138.