On July 7th 2009, LERN held a debate on group selection in which four eminent speakers in the field discussed the motion:

Is natural selection at the group level an important evolutionary force?

Stuart West
Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Oxford

Herbert Gintis
Professor of Economics, Santa Fe Institute, University of Siena, and Central European University

Samir Okasha
Professor of Philosophy of Science, University of Bristol

Mark Pagel
Professor of Biology, University of Reading

This was the first debate-style talk hosted by LERN. Each speaker was allowed 20 minutes to present their ideas followed by 10 minutes rebuttal time. This was followed by a substantial Q&A period at the end of the talks.

This event was hugely successful and was the most attended LERN event to date with over 150 attendees.

After many months of waiting, the videos have finally been uploaded online. You can now watch the debate videos by clicking on the picture below: