'I'm sure Smith and Darwin are dancing in heaven right now'

"I'm sure Smith and Darwin are dancing in heaven right now," said Elias Khalil, an organizer of the symposium about emotions, natural selection and rationality that took place last weekend at the University of Richmond's Jepson Alumni Center.

Khalil, who is associate professor of economics at Monash University in Australia and a visiting lecturer in economics at Richmond, was referring to Adam Smith, author of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759), and Charles Darwin, author of the "Origin of Species" (1859). Smith and Darwin's ideas have received a resurgence of interest, thanks to recent discoveries and new techniques in experiments and neuroscience.

Jonathan Wight, Richmond professor of economics and international studies, also helped plan and organize the event.

"This symposium provides an outstanding opportunity to think across schools and departments," he said, "and to celebrate two great thinkers -- Smith and Darwin -- who provide us today with continued inspiration."

The event also served as a kick off for a new major that will be offered to support the school's Strategic Initiative, which will focus on developing synergies among the various schools. The major will be called Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law (PPEL) and will bring together topics from the schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Leadership and Law.

The two-day event brought together scholars in economics, biology, psychology and other disciplines to discuss how emotions, natural selection and rationality work together. It also included speeches by Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Selten, as well as Leonardo Fogassi, the co-discoverer of the mirror-neuron system in the brain said to be the basis of sympathetic emotions and a discovery that has opened the way to verifying some of Smith's theories.

"What is exciting about this research," Wight said, "is that it has philosophers, biologists and economists coming together to study human society and morals with new approaches that overlap and result in a cross fertilization of ideas."

The symposium was free and open to the public. The farthest attendee came from Iran, Wight said, and others came from across the country. Students in Wight's Ethics and Economics classes were also required to attend. At the end of the first day of speakers on Saturday, a bus tour of historical Richmond was offered, with priority given to non-Richmond residents.

Contact reporter Sharon Tully at sharon.tully@richmond.edu