In this opening lecture, Dr Heather Heying invites listeners into an exploration of the deep structures that underlie both scientific inquiry and the human experience of knowing.
Moving fluidly between biology, philosophy, and the history of ideas, she challenges inherited beliefs while seeking reconciliation through a broader epistemic lens. Weaving together Darwin’s early evolutionary sketches, the concept of universals, and the distinction between biotic and abiotic origins, she explores how evolutionary processes shape everything from molecular architecture to symbolic expression, and how the universals of biology illuminate both the uniqueness of our species and our continuity with the rest of life.
Along the way, Heying reclaims the scientific method from the grip of dogma, clarifies the distinction between the living and non-living worlds, and examines the patterns of similarity and difference that reveal descent with modification, convergence, and divergence. She explores how traits may arise independently without common descent and how such emergent structures resonate across both the natural and cultural realms. Using time, space, and evidence as foundational coordinates, Heying unpacks the deeper patterns underlying biotic life, revealing an order discernible not only through measurement and experimentation, but also through the human capacity for pattern recognition, analogy, and synthesis. In doing so, she shows how science and art are not separate domains, but complementary ways of perceiving and articulating the truths embedded in nature.
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