Academy of Ideas

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS TODAY THE AGE OF EMOTION? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10011 During the 1950s and 1960s, the New American Library published an aspirational series of books, edited by leading philosophers of the day, that divided the history of...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe HOT OFF THE PRESS - DO WE NEED THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10634 At a recent UN Summit the international development community officially ended the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Its repla...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAN TECHNOLOGY SOLVE THE AGEING TIMEBOMB? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10043 From scandals over the quality of elder care to predictions about the burden that greying baby-boomers will place on future generations, it is easy to lo...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BOOKSHOP BARNIE: NICK ROSS ON CRIME: HOW TO SOLVE IT http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10099 Given that provocation is taken into account in all other crimes, why is it ‘heresy’ to suggest that there might be contributory negligence by...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE CULTURE WAR ON TRADITION http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10053 Tradition used to be seen as a good thing, across the political spectrum. Before it became dominated by metropolitan professionals, Labour was rooted in the trade uni...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe PLATO, THE REPUBLIC http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10008 Philosophy, as the English philosopher AN Whitehead remarked, is arguably a series of footnotes to Plato. Perhaps Plato’s most important work is The Republic, a provocative se...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe MONEYBALL OR MOURINHO: IS SPORT SEEING A BIG DATA REVOLUTION? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10054 After a disastrous Cricket World Cup campaign, then England coach Peter Moores reportedly said he would ‘look at the data’ to explain...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe GEORG LUKACS, HISTORY AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10025 Since its publication in 1923, Georg Lukács’s History and Class Consciousness has inspired and antagonised in equal measure. Immediately, some Commun...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe LIBERTARIANS OF THE WORLD UNITE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10064 Rand Paul’s announcement that he would be standing for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 has reopened debate about the resurgence of libertarianism i...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARENDT, THE HUMAN CONDITION http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10030 Whilst Arendt is chiefly famous for her provocative study of the trial of Adolf Eichmann – from which we get the famous phrase ‘the banality of evil’ – Arendt’s import...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe FROM MAGNA CARTA TO HUMAN RIGHTS: CAN THE LAW SET US FREE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10044 This year marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of one of the most famous documents in the world: Magna Carta. The ‘Great Charter’...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE BBC IN AN ERA OF NETFLIX AND AMAZON PRIME http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10528 The BBC is set to have its charter renewed at the end of 2016, but the government seems keen to ensure it is not simply rubber s...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe STIGMATISING MENTAL HEALTH: ARE YOU MAD? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10024 From the suicide of Robin Williams to the deliberate crashing of Germanwings flight 9525 by its mentally ill co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, the stigma surroundi...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe PLANTATION POLITICS: IS INDUSTRIAL FARMING BAD FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD? The ‘green revolution’ of the 1960s and 70s helped developing countries avoid much-predicted mass starvation using new hybrid varieties of crops with chemical fertilisers and pesticide...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DO ANTI-BULLYING POLICIES BUILD CHARACTER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10048 In January, the Department for Education announced an awards scheme for schools that teach perseverance, resilience and grit. The education secretary, N...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe SHOULD SCHOOLS TEACH 'BRITISH VALUES'? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10076 There seems to be a battle for the hearts and minds of young people taking place in Britain today. Stories about teenagers running off to join the Islamic S...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL: IS IDENTITY POLITICS EATING ITSELF? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10050 In her 1969 essay, ‘The personal is political’, feminist Carol Hanisch defended consciousness-raising groups against the charge they...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe AFTER FERGUSON: POLICING IN AMERICA http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/9907 The fatal shooting by police of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last year sparked protests, riots and a national debate about alleged police racism. Subsequ...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe 'FOSTERED ALIKE BY BEAUTY AND FEAR': SHOULD CHILDREN'S LITERATURE COMFORT OR UNSETTLE? William Wordsworth depicted himself growing up ‘fostered alike by beauty and fear’. Indeed, from the after-lights-out delight of private reading to the shared thrill of b...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE CORBYN EFFECT: ARE THE OLD PARTIES DEAD? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10102 When Jeremy Corbyn went from being the token lefty candidate for Labour leader to the favourite to lead the party this summer, it became clear that th...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE DIVESTMENT CONTROVERSY: SHOULD FOSSIL FUELS GO THE WAY OF THE DINOSAURS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10081 In September 2014, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced it would sell off its investments in fossil fuels. Although...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE END OF BOOZY BRITAIN? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/9979 Much of the discussion surrounding alcohol in Britain these days is linked to either public health or crime. Boozing, it seems, can only be viewed as a threat to our live...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS IT TIME TO BUILD ON THE GREEN BELT? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10045 All sides of the political divide agree there is a housing crisis in the UK, but also seem frustratingly short on answers. Campaigners from the Russell Bran...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BLURRED LINES: WHAT IS CONSENT? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/9975 Consent is now a key concept in discussions about sex and relationships. Yet, apparently, few of us actually know what it is. Some now argue that consent should be...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAMPUS WARS: SAFE OR SANITISED? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2015/session_detail/10078 Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at the University of California, Berkeley, through which academics and st...