Philosophy For Our Times

Is beauty a reliable indicator of scientific truth? Or is it merely a distraction? Some of the best scientists throughout history have equated beauty with truth. But is this a mistake? Join pioneering physicist Lisa Randall to discuss the allure and dangers of equating beautiful advances with scientific achievement. Specifically, the talk will cover the subjective nature of beauty, and instances w...

Is this the end of liberalism, or just another temporary crisis? If it is the end, what will follow it? And where did it all go wrong? Since the end of WWII, the Western world has been governed by liberal principles. But as faith in liberalism fades, many are asking: what deeper vision should guide our societies going forward? Join Blue Labour founder Maurice Glasman and author of Tyranny Inc., So...

What does originality mean in the age of AI? Why should artists resist the temptation to fear AI? What role will human creativity play in the future we're building? Jaron Lanier, a visionary computer scientist, artist, composer, futurist, and writer, discusses his latest artistic ventures and the importance of originality in art. Lanier shares insights into how technology intersects with creativit...

What makes you 'you'? If scientists made a digital replica of your mind, would this new 'you' be conscious? And what does this all mean for what it means to exist? Whole-brain emulation (often called “mind uploading” in science fiction) refers to the possible future ability to scan a human brain in such detail that a digital replica could be created, capable of functioning, and perhaps even experi...

Is materialism mistaken in its understanding of consciousness? How can dividing experience into the phenomenal and the transcendent provide a new angle from which to view consciousness? Have you ever wondered what philosophical jazz sounds like? The world's greatest minds have struggled over the question of consciousness for centuries. Idealism, the idea that reality is the product of the mind, wa...

Is this the end of Britain's two-party system? How has Reform brought together seemingly contradictory left- and right-wing ideas? Why do they think that we should get used to climate change instead of trying to fix it? The world has seemingly grown tired of liberal ideas, and the populist right is in the ascendant. They are winning elections, leading polls, and gaining political influence everywh...

Does philosophy still matter in today's world? If so, why are students less and less interested in studying in it? In a special episode from the IAI archives, Mary Midgley addresses the declining interest in philosophy among young people. Instead of an outdated discipline for old people with too much time on their hands, Midgley argues that philosophy is more important than ever if we wish to unde...

Why has gender identity become such a controversial talking point in modern politics? Judith Butler, pioneering gender theorist whose changed the way we think about gender and sexuality, explores the topic of their most recent book, Who's Afraid of Gender? (March 2024). Butler offers a compelling and powerful diagnosis of the anxieties and fears that make up today's wars over gender. In this talk,...

Nadine Dijkstra is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Neurology at UCL. Her research in Imaging Neuroscience explores how the brain generates mental images and differentiates them from actual perception. Utilizing neuroimaging, psychophysics, machine learning, and computational modeling, Dijkstra addresses fundamental questions about the overlap between perception and imagery. Recently,...

Is the brain actually productive? Or is it instead permissive, simply acting as a filter through which consciousness passes? Can near death experiences help us to get closer to understanding the true nature of the brain? Neuroscientist and theoretical physicist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that the brain may not produce consciousness, but instead filter or permit it. Tracing a provocative history from...

Is evolutionary psychology merely a way of excusing outdated behaviours? Is it instead culture which really defines how we behave? As with the animal kingdom, we see human behaviour as the product of elemental drives to survive and reproduce. Evolutionary psychology has taken this a stage further - seeing violence, social hierarchy, and sexual promiscuity as a product of evolutionary drives. But m...

Does the past even exist anymore? Quantum mechanics has long unsettled our understanding of matter and measurement. But what if its implications reach further — into history, politics, and the very structure of reality itself? If the present can retroactively reshape the past it emerged from, what does that mean for how we act, how we remember, and how we govern? These are not merely theoretical p...

Did analytic philosophy ruin the entire discipline? For more than a century there has been a divide in Western philosophy between two distinct approaches, often described as analytic and continental philosophy. Analytic philosophy is predominantly based in the English-speaking world taking its name from Bertrand Russell’s philosophy of logical analysis that overthrew the grand Hegelian metaphysics...

Do we need a moral reawakening? Is animal suffering simply a fact of life or can it be avoided? How did the US Navy break whale protection laws? Is there more to animal suffering than just pain? From the cruelty of the factory meat industry to hunting and habitat destruction, animals are in trouble all over the world. Some deem the treatment of animals in farms the worst crime in history, yet it s...

Universities, long celebrated as sanctuaries of free thought and intellectual rigour, have for centuries been regarded as the best way to educate and conduct research. But increasingly, this assumption is being questioned. A recent study found that two-thirds of academics feel their freedom to teach and study is being curtailed. In 2022 alone, over 1,000 instances of content warnings or text remov...

What do the Soviet Union and the current British economy have in common? What can studying the philosophy of science reveal about our economic systems? Is the depoliticisation of economics a dangerous pipe dream? Join political economist Abby Innes as she argues that treating society as a closed system that can be controlled and regulated ignores man's unrelenting capacity for new ideas and techno...

Who are we? Why are we here? Does life have a meaning beyond itself? Join former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and groundbreaking psychiatrist, literary scholar and author of 'The Matter with Things', Iain McGilchrist, to explore the nature of meaning, and why we should move beyond the assumptions of a materialist worldview from radically divergent perspectives.  Please feel free...

Should everyone be treated equally? Many see populism with its focus on immigration and nationalism as not only politically dangerous but morally wrong. This reflects the universalist morality of the main Western moral frameworks. But critics argue moral universalism generates a case for favouring strangers over the interests of those close to us and that it is profoundly mistaken. In contrast, Ch...

How do we acquire knowledge? We tend to think that knowledge is produced by experts through established institutions, progressing over time towards a single truth. But Steve Fuller challenges this view, arguing that our contemporary "post-truth" order correctly recognises that the pursuit of knowledge is a socially dependent process, shaped by the communities that produce it. Steve Fuller is Profe...

How can taking on the role of someone else help us to understand ourselves? Does the hermit know himself better than the socialite? And where is the line between our true, authentic selves and the multitude of characters we all play each and every day? Join actress and Creative Director of Shakespeare's Globe, Michelle Terry, as she draws on her experience as a performer to explore how acting can...

Alex Gómez-Marín is a controversial figure in contemporary neuroscience, known for challenging the materialist framework that dominates scientific accounts of consciousness. He argues that Near Death Experiences (NDEs) raise profound questions about the nature of reality and the limits of reductionist explanation. In this interview, Gómez-Marín reflects on the scientific evidence we have for NDEs...

The self and the world We tend to think of ourselves as observers of the world and experience as something different from the material stuff that makes up reality. Yet at the same time as human beings, we are at once part of the universe and part of that reality. And this profoundly puzzling relationship, that we are both part of something and yet separate from it, has been at the centre of Wester...

An individual "is responsible for everything he does," claimed Sartre. And from criminal justice to creative expression, free will and responsibility are central to our culture and our personal lives. Yet neuroscientists and materialist thinkers commonly maintain that freedom is an illusion. And it remains unknown how the core principles of freedom and responsibility can be reconciled with this ou...

Are we living in the moment? Are we really free? How can we transcend the constant anxieties of our mind? Throughout history, certain people in the West and the East have claimed that the human mind could reach states of so-called higher consciousness. In the twentieth century, several thinkers like Heidegger and Nietzsche returned to this possibility, trying to find the higher regions of the mind...

The good, the bad, and the transgressive Is the transgression of norms and rules what brings history forward and allows for creativity and change? OR is the fetishization of transgression an ever-present danger that breaks down all structures of meaning and becomes totalizing in of itself? The limits and potentials of transgressiveness have been long debated, especially in rule-breaking Modernity....