We were privileged last week to host Prof. Lorraine Daston from the Max Planck Institute, Berlin and the University of Chicago for our Natalie Zemon Davis Memorial Lectures.
The first lecture in the series argued for diversity as an indication of beauty. Pliny saw beauty in the diversity of flowers as useless in that this diversity did not benefit humankind. Later, diversity indicated taste and status, as early modern princes displayed their Wunderkammer to impress their peers. The second lecture explored diversity as a form of efficiency, benefitting the modern factory owner or "the relentless pressure of natural selection". In contrast to Pliny, Darwin saw beauty as a facet of utility; the beauty of flowers was "beautiful contrivance to avoid self-fertilization". This was followed by a fascinating discussion between Prof. Daston and Frank Zachos, Curator at Vienna's Natural History Museum.
For the third lecture, Prof. Daston examined the rise of diversity as a concept of justice. She explained the “meteoric rise of diversity as a social, political, and moral” factor, arguing that this rise must be understand in context of previous uses of the term, set out in her previous lectures. Each of the lectures was followed by questions from the audience, exploring points made across chronological and geographical boundaries.
Watch the second lecture: