Biography:

Alvaro Fischer studied at The Grange School in Santiago, where he graduated in 1969 and in the Universidad de Chiles Engineering School, where he completed his studies in 1976 and received his title as a mathematical engineer in 1978. He is married to Ximena Katz, Md. from the Catholic University, specialized in paediatric ophthalmology. They have three children, Claudia, Benjamn and Daniela, the former a university student, and the latter two students of The Grange School. He developed his professional career as a businessman and entrepreneur, and currently serves as a member of the board of various companies, in some of which he is a controlling shareholder. He was president of the Instituto de Ingenieros de Chile during 2000-2001 and received the award For Distinguished Actions from that same institution in 2002. He is a member of the New York Academy of Science and the Human Behaviour and Evolution Society. He has written numerous articles in Chilean newspapers and magazines. He published the book Evolucin el Nuevo paradigma in 2001 and edited the book Nuevos Paradigmas a Comienzos del Tercer Milenio published in 2004, and La Mejor Idea Jams Concebida in 2009. Currently, apart from his business and academic activities, he is a member of the Editorial Committee of the El Mercurio newspaper, and President of the Ciencia y Evolucin Foundation (www.cienciayevolucion.org), organizer of the series of seminars that have been taking place in Chile in 2009 under the title Darwins Intellectual Legacy in the XXI Century, with world renowned Darwinists as speakers

Abstract:

Darwins Intellectual Legacy in the XXI Century

Darwins Origin of Species impact on the 19th century intellectual scenario was immediate. It detached human beings of their special status, to become just another species that resulted from the descent with modification, or natural selection process. After that, and during most of the XX century, the spoils of the so called social Darwinism which culminated with the Nazi regime in Germany, prevented Darwins ideas from exerting their full influence to provide a way to understand human beings. Then, in the1960s and 1970s, when altruism and cooperation were shown to be an integral part of natural selections work, by Hamilton and Trivers, Darwins ideas flourished once again, generating a paradigm shift in the social sciences realm. The evolutionary perspective has become a powerful tool to generate a model of individual and social behavior. Basically, it states that human psychological traits have been shaped by natural selection, to adaptively solve the problems our hunter-gatherer ancestors confronted in their environment. The evolutionary perspective has allowed us to assert that there is a human nature, and that the social sciences can be built in a way that is coherent with the underlying physics, chemistry and biology on which they are founded. It has also been a fruitful way to formulate testable hypothesis, match empirical evidence, thus permitting us to understand why we are the way we are.