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BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

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Radio 4 (FM)

Start the Week

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

BBC Radio 4 LW

Tom Sutcliffe

Lydia Cacho

David Sloan Wilson

William MacAskill

Tansy Davies

Luke Mulhall

Start the Week: David Sloan Wilson on Altruism

start-the-week_david-wilson_130415_e_luke-mulhall.jpg

13/04/2015

David Sloan Wilson on Altruism

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, David Sloan Wilson on Altruism

Tom Sutcliffe with Lydia Cacho, David Sloan Wilson, William MacAskill and Tansy Davies.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses altruism with Mexican campaigner Lydia Cacho, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, moral philosopher William MacAskill and composer Tansy Davies.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe asks whether altruism is best explained through evolutionary science or moral philosophy. David Sloan Wilson argues for the former and believes altruism is part of group dynamics and social behaviour. William MacAskill may study the moral case for doing good, but is more interested in the practical impact than the heroic sacrifice. The Mexican campaigner Lydia Cacho knows what it means to make enormous personal sacrifices for the sake of others - her exposure of sexual and physical abuse has led to numerous threats on her life. While the composer Tansy Davies attempts to bring to the stage human beings in extremis as she creates an opera based on the events of 9/11.

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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David Sloan Wilson on Altruism

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