Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on Plato At The Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away
This talk refutes the assertion of some that philosophy is dead, and has no intellectual substance or future in this scientific era. She offers insight into the significant progress philosophy has made and why it is critical to our lives today and she does so in a witty and imaginative way. Plato is resurrected and into the twenty-first century where he embarks on a speaking tour during which he engages in a debate between a Freudian psychoanalyst and a tiger mother; encounters the host of a right-wing news programme who denies that can be morality without religion; and is made to consider Google and the idea that knowledge can be crowdsourced rather than reasoned out by experts. This would be great talk for Y12's Theory of the Forms.
Time: Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7:00pm start - 9.00pm
Date: 20 October 2014
Venue: Nunn Hall, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL
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David Hume strove to understand human nature better in terms of psychology and our natural impulses, rather than our relationship to any gods or goddesses. He was a fierce naturalist, an empiricist, and a sceptic. But was Hume a humanist in the sense we know today? Some would say yes - and others might want to unpack this question a little bit more.
The popular moral philosopher and BHA Vice Preisdent Professor Simon Blackburn will cast a little light on what we think we know about Hume's beliefs about the universe, and embark on a close examination of Humanism itself. This would be great for Y12 studying arguments for the existence of God
Time: Doors open at 6.00pm for a 6:30pm start - 8.30pm (followed by a drinks reception)
Date: 26 November
Venue: UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT (Anatomy G29 J Z Young LT)
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