Some face-to-face events are returning. Check carefully for any requirements.

The 5th Annual Oxford Business and Poverty Conference will feature a diverse range of speakers addressing the Paradoxes of Prosperity. Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-oxford-business-poverty-conference-tickets-57733957822
Hosted at the Sheldonian Theatre, the conference will feature keynotes by:
Lant Pritchett: RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, former Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development
Efosa Ojomo: Global Prosperity Lead and Senior Researcher at the Clayton Christensen Institute
John Hoffmire: Director of Center on Business and Poverty and Research Associate at Kellogg Colleges at Center For Mutual and Employee-owned Business at Oxford University
Ananth Pai: Executive Director, Bharath Beedi Works Pvt. Ltd. and Director, Bharath Auto Cars Pvt
Laurel Stanfield: Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bentley College in Massachusetts
Grace Cheng: Greater China’s Country Manager for Russell Reynolds Associates
Madhusudan Jagadish: 2016 Graduate MBA, Said Business School, University of Oxford
Tentative Schedule:
2:15-2:20 Welcome
2:20-2:50 Efosa Ojomo, co-author of The Prosperity Paradox, sets the stage for the need for innovation in development
2:50-3:20 John Hoffmire, Ananth Pai and Mudhusudan Jagadish explain how the Prosperity Paradox can be used in India as a model to create good jobs for poor women
3:20-3:40 Break
3:40-4:10 Laurel Steinfeld speaks to issues of gender, development and business – addressing paradoxes related to prosperity
4:10-4:40 Grace Cheng, speaks about the history of China’s use of disruptive innovations to develop its economy
4:40-5:15 Break
5:15-6 Lant Pritchett talks on Pushing Past Poverty: Paths to Prosperity
6:30-8 Dinner at the Rhodes House – Purchase tickets after signing up for the conference
Sponsors include: Russell Reynolds, Employee Ownership Foundation, Ananth Pai Foundation and others
This is a joint book talk with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School
Now that Trump has turned the United States into a global climate outcast, will China take the lead in saving our planet from environmental catastrophe? Many signs point to yes. China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, is leading a global clean energy revolution, phasing out coal consumption and leading the development of a global system of green finance.
But as leading China environmental expert and author of Will China Save the Planet? Barbara Finamore will explain in this talk, it is anything but easy. The fundamental economic and political challenges that China faces in addressing its domestic environmental crisis threaten to derail its low-carbon energy transition. Yet there is reason for hope. China’s leaders understand that transforming the world’s second largest economy from one dependent on highly polluting heavy industry to one focused on clean energy, services and innovation is essential, not only to the future of the planet, but to China’s own prosperity.
We will also hear from respondent Radhika Khosla, Research Director at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, Somerville College.
This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, book sale and signing, all welcome
This one-day workshop with St Cross College Professional in Residence David Scrymgeour covers the steps towards building a successful organisation, from designing, starting, and growing, to managing, changing, fixing, and evolving. The workshop will be highly practical, and will help you to develop a model for thinking about an organisation and how to apply it in clear practical steps. During the course of the day, you will look at the ‘Three Pillars’ model of organisations: Sales, finance, and operations, and there will be case studies, question and answer sessions, and plenty of time for networking over a working lunch.
About David:
David Scrymgeour has worked as an entrepreneur, consultant, trouble-shooter and community advisor. He is currently Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence at the Rotman School of Management.
Tickets are £5 which covers a working lunch.

https://www.facebook.com/events/470703583730859/
Why do we laugh? What makes something funny? Does the morality of a joke affect how good a joke is? Why is breaking the rule of three important?
A broad overview at some of the contemporary academic questions about humour, laughter and jokes.
Alex is a stand-up and former school teacher. He has a deep interest in jokes and the broader questions behind humour and stand-up.
As a stand-up Alex has been invited to perform everywhere from Mervyn Stutter’s pick of the Edinburgh Fringe, the National Museum of Scotland, the Oxford University Teaching Awards, and comedy clubs throughout the UK.
He also run comedy clubs. For more info about that visit www.jerichocomedy.com. Jericho Comedy were recommended in the Sunday Times recently and voted one of the top 6 comedy nights in the UK in the Chortle 2019 awards. You can also hear him host at Union Jack FM’s “One Night Stand” on Thursdays.
In addition to this talk, Alex will also be performing his own stand-up hour at the Jericho Tavern on Thursday July 4th at 9pm: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/473635
—
7.30PM start at St. Aldates Tavern, and entry is free, although we do suggest a donation of around £3 to cover speaker expenses.
We tend to get busy, so arrive early to make sure you get a seat. If you have difficulty standing, send us a message and we’ll make sure we reserve a chair for you.
Come along and say hello! All welcome.
http://oxford.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/24889/An-introduction-to-a-philosophy-of-jokes

For this event, 12 artists from all over the country will be presenting work that they have been making as part of the Sound Diaries open call.
The presenting artists are:
Richard Bentley, Hannah Dargavel-Leafe, Aisling Davis, Atilio Doreste, Marlo De Lara, Beth Shearsby, Kathryn Tovey, Jacek Smolicki, James Green, Lucia Hinojosa, Sena Karahan, Fi.Ona
Sound Diaries expands awareness of the roles of sound and listening in daily life. The project explores the cultural and communal significance of sounds and forms a research base for projects executed both locally and Internationally, in Beijing, Brussels, Tallinn, Cumbria and rural Oxfordshire.
We are pleased to announce a very special Philosophy in the Bookshop to celebrate the release of a new comprehensive look at the history of Philosophy in one volume. Nigel Warburton will be in conversation with A C Grayling to discuss the release of his new book.
AC Grayling’s aim in THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY is to give a clear and comprehensive account of the great adventure of philosophy, mainly in the Western tradition but with overviews of the rich Indian, Chinese and Arabic-Persian traditions also. Philosophy is the fountainhead of ideas that drive history and shape our world; it is the progenitor of the natural and social sciences, it is the tradition of questioning and scepticism which has challenged dogma and resisted the desire of all forms of absolutism to stop enquiry and stifle thought. The story of philosophy is the story of most of the greatest minds in the world from classical antiquity to the present, and of the unending quest for an understanding of reality, truth and value.
This event takes place on the last Saturday of August (Bank Holiday Weekend) in a change from our usual regular date. The talk is free to attend but likely to be extremely popular. We recommend that registration be made to ensure that your place is secure and that you arrive early if you’d like a seat (as registration alone doesn’t guarantee this) The talk will take place in the Philosophy department of the Norrington Room which has limited access for wheelchair users. Please contact the store for further clarification.
Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a very special event at the Sheldonian Theatre with Alain de Botton on The School of Life: An Emotional Education.
We spend years in school learning facts and figures but the one thing we’re never taught is how to live a fulfilled life. That’s why we need The School of Life – a real organisation founded ten years ago by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton, an organisation which has one simple aim: to equip people with the tools to survive and thrive in the modern world. And the most important of these tools is emotional intelligence.
The School of Life is nothing short of a crash course in emotional maturity. With all the trademark wit and elegance of Alain de Botton’s other writings, and rooted in practical, achievable advice, it shows us a path to the better lives we all want and deserve.
Blackwell’s are delighted to present our monthly series of talks, Philosophy in the Bookshop. In a very special event, our programme moves across the street to the Sheldonian Theatre for one night only.
Do we need God in order to explain the existence of the universe? Do we need God in order to be good?
Join Richard Dawkins for a special evening at the Sheldonian Theatre where he will be introducing his book ‘Outgrowing God’, addressing some of the most profound questions human beings confront. Professor Dawkins will be interviewed by author Nigel Warburton.
Should we believe in God? In this new book written for a new generation, the brilliant science writer and author of the international bestseller, ‘The God Delusion’, explains why we shouldn’t.
Richard Dawkins was fifteen when he stopped believing in God. Deeply impressed by the beauty and complexity of living things, he’d felt certain they must have had a designer. Learning about evolution changed his mind. Now one of the world’s best and bestselling science communicators, Richard Dawkins has given readers, young and old, the same opportunity to rethink the big questions.
In ‘Outgrowing God’, Richard Dawkins marshals science, philosophy and comparative religion to interrogate the hypocrisies of all the religious systems and explains to readers of all ages how life emerged without a Creator, how evolution works and how our world came into being.
Richard Dawkins is author of ‘The Selfish Gene’, voted The Royal Society’s Most Inspiring Science Book of All Time, and also the bestsellers ‘The Blind Watchmaker’, ‘Climbing Mount Improbable’, ‘The Ancestor’s Tale’, ‘The God Delusion’, and two volumes of autobiography, ‘An Appetite for Wonder’ and ‘Brief Candle in the Dark’. He is a Fellow of New College, Oxford and both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. In 2013, Dawkins was voted the world’s top thinker in Prospect magazine’s poll of 10,000 readers from over 100 countries.
Nigel Warburton is a public philosopher and author. As well as being the host of the podcast ‘Philosophy Bites’ with David Edmonds, he is also the author of the bestselling ‘A Little History of Philosophy’, ‘Philosophy : The Classics’, ‘Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction’ and many others.
Tickets cost £10. Seating in the Sheldonian is unreserved and allocated on a first come, first served basis. Doors for entry will open at 6:15pm. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call 01865 333623.
An amusing talk and exploration of AI and the future of technology. Is the future more absurd than comedians can imagine? Will a driver-less BMW still cut you up? What do we do when a human doesn’t pass the Turing test? Computers have beaten chess masters but can they beat comedians?
‘Philosophy in the Bookshop’ is our free monthly series of Philosophy events, hosted by Nigel Warburton and featuring a different thinker each month discussing their work. This month, Nigel discusses ‘Becoming Beauvoir’ with Kate Kirkpatrick.
‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’, wrote Simone de Beauvoir. This is a woman who was also to become a philosopher, a novelist, an existentialist, and a feminist icon. Her novels won prestigious literary prizes and The Second Sextransformed the way we think about sex and gender. She was also the long-term lover of Jean-Paul Sartre, but it was to film-maker Claude Lanzmann that she wrote ‘You are my destiny, my eternity, my life .’ in letters which only came to light in 2018. Kate Kirkpatrick draws on previously unavailable diaries and letters, including those written to Lanzmann. The new personal details about her life revealed for the first time by the book can only deepen the mystery and our fascination with her. Why did this ‘feminist icon’ edit her image so much? Why did she lie about her relationship with Sartre so often, or claim not to be a philosopher? Perhaps with so much that’s new here we’ll get a little closer to understanding who Beauvoir really was.
This talk takes place within the Philosophy department of the Norrington Room. (Please note that there is limited access to the department with no ramp available)
We are delighted to announce a very special Philosophy in the Bookshop event to mark our fifth anniversary in the series.
Host Nigel Warburton will be joined by philosopher Philip Goff and author Sir Philip Pullman to discuss the influence that Philosophy (Consciousness and Panpsychism in particular) has had on their respective works. Philip Goff’s new book ‘Galileo’s Error’ and Sir Philip Pullman’s ‘The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth’ are both released in 2019 and will be available to purchase on the day.
This event is FREE to attend and will take place in the Philosophy department in the Norrington Room. Registration MUST be made and proof brought with you on the day to gain access to the seating/viewing area. Seating is very limited and will be available on a first come, first served basis. Please note, this area is only accessible via a small set of stairs. Please note neither of the authors will be signing after the talk.
Please call 01865 333623 if you have any enquiries.
Data-driven micro-targeted campaigns have become a main stable of political strategy. As personal and societal data becomes more accessible, we need to understand how it can be used and mis-used in political campaigns and whether it is relevant to regulate political candidates’ access to data.
This book talk will be followed by a drinks reception and book sale, all welcome
Alongside our conference on 19th October, Greene’s Institute will be hosting our first public event: a special interactive keynote with Professor Henrike Lähnemann (University of Oxford). This event promises to be a fantastic exploration of one of the most important acts of translation in European history. All are welcome.
Michaelmas term’s topic of the popular St Hilda’s ‘Brain and Mind – from concrete to abstract’ series of workshops is ‘Creativity and the Brain’.
Professor Jane Mellanby (Oxford), Dr Lambros Malafouris (Oxford), and Dr Matthew Kiernan (Leeds) will address this topic from the points of view of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy respectively.
There will be a break with refreshments.

In this lecture, Professor Sir Richard Sorabji considers free speech in the age of social media, and questions whether legal restrictions on certain speech acts or self-restraint would be the most effective and appropriate means to secure freedoms while protecting against harms.
We can be thankful if we live in countries which allow a right to freedom of expression. But before using it, we need to think what is the value of freedom of expression. J.S. Mill’s wonderful survey of its benefits seems to presuppose that free expression leads to discussion, and hence to more understanding. But what, for example, about attacks on rival religions? They can stop discussion dead and replace it with retaliation, which impedes even re-thought about the original attack. The law is a clumsy instrument, and voluntary self-restraint could be better at preserving the benefits of free expression. There have been cross-cultural examples since ancient history of leaders good at encouraging listening to rival views.
But in at least one case, I wonder if new legislation is needed against the funding of some (not all) social media, through the sale of personal profiles to advertisers, including propagandists. Does this encourage extremist content, facilitate the manipulation of voters with targeted propaganda tailored to their profiles, and create wealth sufficient to pay or contest any fines? Should the sale and purchase of personal profiles be made illegal?
Professor Sir Richard Sorabji is a fellow of the British, American and Royal Flemish Academies, author of books on Aristotle; Gandhi; and Moral Conscience through the Ages (in preparation); and editor of 100 volumes of translation from philosophy linking late antiquity to the middle ages.
He founded the King’s College Centre for Philosophical Studies between 1989 and 1991, with the aim of promoting philosophy to the wider public, and was Director of the Institute of Classical Studies from 1991 to 1996.
Professor Sorabji was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1999 for his services to ancient philosophy, and knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to philosophical scholarship.

Charles Babbage has been called the ‘great-uncle’ of modern computing, a claim that rests simultaneously on his demonstrable understanding of most of the architectural principles underlying the modern computer,band the almost universal ignorance of Babbage’s work before 1970. There has since been an explosion of interest both in Babbage’s devices and the impact they might have had in some parallel history, and in Babbage himself as a man of great originality who had essentially no influence at all on subsequent technological development.
In all this, one fundamental question has been largely ignored: how is it that one individual working alone could have synthesised a workable computer design over a short period, designing an object whose complexity of behaviour so far exceeded that of contemporary machines that it would not be matched for over one hundred years?
Our Leverhulme funded project Notions and notations: Charles Babbage’s language of thought investigated the design methods that Babbage used, and their impact on subsequent design practice. As part of that work we constructed a steam-driven difference engine to Babbage’s outline design.
In this general interest talk, we shall describe some aspects of Babbage’s designs and design methods, and demonstrate the difference engine.
Blackwell’s is thrilled to be welcoming Erling Kagge to discuss his new book ‘Philosophy for Polar Explorers’.
Synopsis
Erling Kagge was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth’s poles by foot – the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In ‘Philosophy for Polar Explorers’ he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance.
This is the essential guide to the art of exploration. In sixteen meditative but practical lessons – from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to find focus and comfort in solitude – Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed.
Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who was the first in history to reach the ‘three poles’ – North, South and the summit of Everest. He now lives in Oslo where he runs a publishing house. He is the author of multiple books, including ‘Silence’, which is published in 38 languages, and ‘Walking’.
Tickets for this event are £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm when there will be a small bar available to purchase drinks. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Adam Smith is world-famous as a founding father of economics, and well-known to political theorists and philosophers for his Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). His work as a jurist is much less well known. As a notorious perfectionist, he worked for decades on a book that would have spanned the ground between the moral philosophy of TMS and the empirical sociology and economics of Wealth of Nations (WN). He never completed it, and on his deathbed he asked his executors to destroy his manuscripts. Which, sadly for us, they did.
But thanks to two near-miraculous survivals we know a great deal about what Adam Smith’s book on jurisprudence would have said. Two of his Glasgow students kept detailed notes of his lectures there between 1762 and 1764. One set was rediscovered in 1895, the other in 1958. They were taken in successive academic years, and they show that Smith shifted the order in which he presented his topics, but not the essentials of his course. The two independent sources validate each other.
Professor Iain McLean will lay out the principles of Smith’s jurisprudence; show how it forms the bridge between TMS and WN; and try to show Smith’s half-submerged influence on the new republic of the United States, in whose revolution he took a great deal of interest.
The lecture opens a one-day workshop on Tuesday 13 November on the jurisprudence behind the writings and philosophy of Adam Smith.
Iain McLean was born and brought up in Edinburgh. He is Senior Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford. One of his research interests is the interaction of the Scottish, American, and French Enlightenments of the 18th century. His Adam Smith: Radical and Egalitarian (2006) was written at the instigation of Smith’s fellow Fifer Gordon Brown.

In this lecture, in honour of Edward Greene, Donald Meek will describe the fascinating process of Gaelic Bible translation in Scotland and Ireland. Beginning with the standard Gaelic Bible, translated between 1767 and 1804, Donald will explain its creation, and its debts to the work of earlier translators and revisers, including the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle (who produced ‘Kirk’s Bible in 1690), but pre-eminently to the foundational labours of the translators of the Bible into Classical Gaelic in Ireland in the earlier seventeenth century. Both the principal translators of that period – Bishop William Ó Dómhnaill and Bishop William Bedell – studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where they were trained in biblical languages by the first Master of Emmanuel, Lawrence Chadderton. By way of comparison and contrast, brief reference will be made to the somewhat different histories of Bible translation into Manx and Welsh. The lecture will conclude with some discussion of the profound influence of the Gaelic Bible on the development of modern Scottish Gaelic literature, and its enduring legacy
When the UK joined the EU in 1973 all previous trade barriers with the EU were abolished, which led to a strong intensification of trade with the European continent.
This situation will soon be a thing of the past, however, as new trade barriers will be erected with the withdrawal. Since the food self-sufficiency rate in the UK is particular low newly invoked trade barriers will significantly affect how food is produced and consumed in the UK.
Please register via the link provided.
Lord Sumption will discuss the impact on our constitution and political system of the referendum of 2016 and its aftermath.
Part of the Oxford Martin Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’
St Benet’s Hall marks a special exhibition of The Rule of St Benedict MS. Hatton 48, fols. 14v-15r at the Weston Library, with a series of lectures on aspects of the mediaeval Benedictine contribution to scholarship, libraries and spirituality.
The lecture programme takes place at the Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
14:30-15.30
Living the Rule of Saint Benedict in England, from the Middle Ages to the Reformation
Professor James Clark, Professor of History, University of Exeter
15.30-16.20
Benedictine Libraries in Medieval England: a Changing Perspective
Professor Richard Sharpe FBA, Hon. MRIA, Professor of Diplomatic, Wadham College, University of Oxford
16.30-17.20
The Rule as a Living Document
The Very Rev. Oswald McBride, OSB, Prior, St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford
A drinks reception follows the final lecture, from 17:30 to 18:10.
Booking is essential, for each lecture.
Those attending the lectures are welcome to join Vespers at St Benet’s Hall, 38 St Giles, OX1 3LN at 6.30pm.
Speaker: Dr Neil Armstrong (Stipendiary Lecturer in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Magdalen College)
This paper uses ethnographic material of NHS mental healthcare to raise some questions about autonomy, risk and personal and institutional responsibility.
My research investigates mental health. I am particularly interested in how the institutional setting shapes so much of mental healthcare. My research aims to find ways that we might improve healthcare institutions rather than just focussing on developing new healthcare interventions. I am also concerned with methodological questions: how anthropological work can be of clinical value, and how best to produce anthropological knowledge in an inclusive way.
‘Job insecurity at the end of the 20th century has given way to income insecurity at the start of the 21st.’ – Andy Haldane, July 2019
Join us for a stimulating morning of talks exploring the current challenges of income insecurity, with keynote speaker Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England. We will discuss labour market precarity, pay volatility and income insecurity issues in the UK and more widely, and their implications for the labour market and the structure of the social security system.
Programme:
Welcome and introduction by Charles Godfray, Director, Oxford Martin School
Keynote address: Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England
‘Pay volatility and income insecurity: what role for social security?’ by Jane Millar, Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath
‘Measuring economic insecurity: Why and How?’ by Matteo Richiardi, Professor of Economics and Director of EUROMOD, University of Essex, INET Associate
Panel discussion and Q&A: chaired by Brian Nolan, Professor of Social Policy at Oxford, with speakers and Fran Bennett, Senior Research and Teaching Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
This event is free, but registration is essential to ensure your place.
You are welcome to bring lunch with you.
This series of talks is organised by the Oxford Martin School, Department of Social Policy and Intervention & Institute for New Economic Thinking, University of Oxford
Jointly organised by the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Anscombe Bioethics Centre. This unusual online event will see Alberto Guibilini and David Jones adopting the other’s position on conscientious objection, arguing for the opposing view in an attempt to explore not only the subject, but the very nature of disagreement and discussion. Audience members will be encouraged to explore their views on conscientious objection in the same way.
Professor Buchanan introduces his latest book ‘Our Moral Fate: Evolution and the Escape From Tribalism’. Is tribalism-the political and cultural divisions between Us and Them-an inherent part of our basic moral psychology? Many scientists link tribalism and morality, arguing that the evolved “moral mind” is tribalistic. Any escape from tribalism, according to this thinking, would be partial and fragile, because it goes against the grain of our nature. In this book, Allen Buchanan offers a counterargument: the moral mind is highly flexible, capable of both tribalism and deeply inclusive moralities, depending on the social environment in which the moral mind operates.0We can’t be morally tribalistic by nature, Buchanan explains, because quite recently there has been a remarkable shift away from tribalism and toward inclusiveness, as growing numbers of people acknowledge that all human beings have equal moral status, and that at least some nonhumans also have moral standing. These are what Buchanan terms the Two Great Expansions of moral regard. And yet, he argues, moral progress is not inevitable but depends partly on whether we have the good fortune to develop as moral agents in a society that provides the right conditions for realizing our moral potential. But morality need not depend on luck. We can take charge of our moral fate by deliberately shaping our social environment-by engaging in scientifically informed “moral institutional design.” For the first time in human history, human beings can determine what sort of morality is predominant in their societies and what kinds of moral agents they are.
The FinCEN Files investigation, coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, exposed more than $2 trillion in suspicious deals.
Criminals, politicians and others sent money through the world’s major banks, which initially ignored red flags or reported the money as potentially dirty after weeks, months or years of delay. Billions of dollars in suspicious deals moved from Africa into Europe, the United States, the Middle East and secretive tax havens, including payments to and from politicians and family members, state-owned oil and gas companies, arms companies and many others.
Join William Fitzgibbon and Augustin Armendariz, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and Taiwo Hassan Adebayo, Premium Times Nigeria, as they discuss with Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira what the FinCEN Files investigation has uncovered and the implications.