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The "Altenberg Workshops in Theoretical Biology" address key questions of biological theories. Each workshop is organized by leading experts of a certain field who invite a group of international specialists to the KLI. The Altenberg Workshops aim to make conceptual progress and to generate initiatives of a distinctly interdisciplinary nature. 

Event Details

Rebekka Hufendiek
KLI Colloquia
Hierarchies and Power in Primatology and Their Populist Appropriations
Rebekka HUFENDIEK (Ulm University)
2026-04-09 15:00 - 2026-04-09 16:30
Hybrid
Organized by KLI

Join via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5881861923?omn=85945744831
Meeting ID: 588 186 1923

Topic description / abstract

Hierarchies, social organization, the distribution of power within groups, and shifts in these power structures have long been central topics in primatology (see e.g. De Waal 1982). Primatologists occasionally draw on their findings to offer indirect evidence for narratives about the evolution of human social behavior, roles, and cognition. These applications, however, remain speculative to some extent. Nevertheless, they frequently appear in popular media and, in recent decades, have been appropriated by fringe and right-wing online communities to promote ideas about “natural” hierarchies and fixed social roles.

In this talk I aim to reconstruct some of the interactions between primatological research and its public reception, situating them within the philosophy of science. I argue that applying primatological findings to human evolution inevitably involves mixed claims—that is, claims with both descriptive and normative dimensions. I suggest that explicitly engaging with the normative components of such claims could help safeguard scientific research against populist misappropriations.
 
Biographical note
 
Rebekka Hufendiek completed her PhD in philosophy in 2012 at Humboldt University of Berlin. She has published numerous papers and a book on embodied emotions (2015). After postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Fribourg (2012) and Basel (2013) and research stays at the University of Exeter (2016) and the Alfried Krupp Kolleg in Greifswald (2020), she was awarded an Eccellenza Grant by the SNSF (2020). As Assistant Professor at the University of Bern, she led the research group “Explaining Human Nature: Empirical and Ideological Dimensions.” Since 2023, she has been Professor of Philosophy at Ulm University, working mainly on science, values, and ideology.