Panel:

Professor Charles Godfray, Director, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and author of the chapter How can 9-10 Billion People be Fed Sustainably and Equitably by 2050?
Professor Ian Goldin, Director, Oxford Martin School, Editor of Is the Planet Full? and author of the chapter Governance Matters Most
Professor Sarah Harper, Director, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, Oxford Martin School and author of the chapter Demographic and Environmental Transitions
Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Director, Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests, Oxford Martin School and author of the chapter The Metabolism of a Human-Dominated Planet
Dr Toby Ord, James Martin Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology and author of the chapter Overpopulation or Underpopulation?
The panel will discuss whether our planet can continue to support a growing population estimated to reach 10 billion people by the middle of the century.

The panel discussion will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception.

This panel discussion will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIqDQP1Vjc

About the Book:
What are the impacts of population growth? Can our planet support the demands of the ten billion people anticipated to be the world’s population by the middle of this century?

While it is common to hear about the problems of overpopulation, might there be unexplored benefits of increasing numbers of people in the world? How can we both consider and harness the potential benefits brought by a healthier, wealthier and larger population? May more people mean more scientists to discover how our world works, more inventors and thinkers to help solve the world’s problems, more skilled people to put these ideas into practice?

In this book, leading academics with a wide range of expertise in demography, philosophy, biology, climate science, economics and environmental sustainability explore the contexts, costs and benefits of a burgeoning population on our economic, social and environmental systems.

Professor David Vines, Director, Ethics & Economics, The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, will talk about his new book Capital Failure: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services.

The book talk will be followed by a book signing

About the Speaker
David Vines is Director, Ethics & Economics, The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School; Professor of Economics, and a Fellow of Balliol College, at the University of Oxford. He is also Adjunct Professor of Economics at the Australian National University, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

From 2008 to 2012 he was the Research Director of the European Union’s Framework Seven PEGGED Research Program, which analysed Global Economic Governance within Europe. Professor Vines received a BA from Melbourne University in 1971, and subsequently an MA and PhD from Cambridge University. From 1985 to 1992 he was Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University of Glasgow.

His research interests are in macroeconomics, including financial frictions, fiscal and monetary interactions, and financial crisis. His recent books include: The Leaderless Economy: Why the World Economic System Fell Apart and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press, 2013, with Peter Temin); The IMF and its Critics: Reform of Global Financial Architecture (Cambridge University Press, 2004, with Christopher Gilbert); The Asian Financial Crisis: Causes, Contagion and Consequences (Cambridge University Press, 1999, with Pierre-Richard Agénor, Marcus Miller, and Axel Weber) and his latest book Capital Failure: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services (Oxford University Press, 2014, with Nicholas Morris).

About the Book
Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ relied on the self-interest of individuals to produce good outcomes. Economists’ belief in efficient markets took this idea further by assuming that all individuals are selfish. This belief underpinned financial deregulation, and the theories on incentives and performance which supported it. However, although Adam Smith argued that although individuals may be self-interested, he argued that they also have other-regarding motivations, including a desire for the approbation of others. This book argues that the trust-intensive nature of financial services makes it essential to cultivate such other-regarding motivations, and it provides proposals on how this might be done.

Trustworthiness in the financial services industry was eroded by deregulation and by the changes to industry structure which followed. Incentive structures encouraged managers to disguise risky products as yielding high returns, and regulation failed to curb this risk-taking, rent-seeking behaviour. The book makes a number of proposals for reforms of governance, and of legal and regulatory arrangements, to address these issues. The proposals seek to harness values and norms that would reinforce ‘other-regarding’ behaviour, so that the firms and individuals in the financial services act in a more trustworthy manner.

Public Seminar: Thinking About the Brain

With speakers: Professor Chris Kennard; Professor Glyn Humphreys; Professor David Lomas; Dr Joshua Hordern; Dr Ayoush Lazikani; Dr Matthew Broome; Dr Chrystalina Antoniades

Thursday 20 November, 5.30-8.30pm
Ashmolean Education Centre

The evening will offer an opportunity to explore current research into the brain and the mind from a wide range of perspectives, from medieval literature to contemporary art and neuroscience.

Thinking About the Brain is a public seminar, forming part of the developing collaboration between the Ashmolean Museum’s University Engagement Programme and Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. It is being co-organised by Dr Jim Harris, Andrew W Mellon Foundation Teaching Curator at the Ashmolean, and Dr Chrystalina Antoniades, Lecturer in Medicine at Brasenose College and Senior Research Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences.

Open to all and free of charge. To ensure a place, please follow this link to e-mail Dr Jim Harris (at jim.harris @ ashmus.ox.ac.uk), or telephone 01865 288 287.

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

Animal rights: a human perspective

Thursday 20 November, 7:30pm to 9:00pm

The Mitre, corner of High St and Turl St (upstairs function room)

All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.

Join us for a critical review of the extent to which businesses promote HR in practice. Talk of corporate responsibility, pro-bono schemes and language of sustainability and accountability continues to increase but in reality are businesses doing enough to promote and protect Human Rights? There will be the chance to talk more informally with the speakers after the event over drinks and nibbles.

Panel Speakers: Rae Lindsay (Clifford Chance), Peter Frankental (Amnesty International)

Chair: Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, University of Reading

We are delighted to welcome Michael S. Malone to Saïd Business School on Monday 24th November.

Mike has covered Silicon Valley and high-tech for more than thirty years, and was twice nominated by the San Jose Mercury-News for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen award-winning books, notably the bestselling ‘The Virtual Corporation’, ‘The Future Arrived Yesterday’ and most recently ‘The Intel Corporation’. A regular editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, Mike has hosted three nationally syndicated public television interview series and co-produced the Emmy-nominated primetime PBS miniseries The New Heroes. As an entrepreneur, Mike was a founding shareholder of eBay, Siebel Systems (sold to Oracle) and Qik (sold to Skype), and is currently vice-chairman of a new start-up, PatientKey Inc. Mike holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, where he is currently an adjunct professor. He is also an associate fellow of the Said Business School at Oxford University, and is a Distinguished Friend of Oxford.

Mike will also be signing copies of his new book ‘The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World’s Most Important Company’ during the drinks reception following his talk.

“Few people capture the rhythms and values that fuel Silicon Valley as well as longtime journalist Michael S. Malone. In his latest book, he takes on the history of Intel, a company he started covering when most reporters were still using typewriters. He reveals his deep knowledge on every page.”
—Reid Hoffman, cofounder & chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of The Alliance

Copies of the book will be available to buy for £20 (cash only).

Talk: 6pm – 7pm
Drinks reception and book signing: 7pm

The Anglo-Scottish Border: a Photographic Tour
With Tim Porter, lecturer

Medieval Scotland Afternoon Tea Lecture Series

Tuesday 25 November, 2–4pm
At the Ashmolean Museum (Lecture Theatre)

With the 2014 referendum for Scottish independence, the historic relationship between Scotland and England has recently been a prevalent topic of political discussion. This year also marks the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn, a significant Scottish victory in the First War of Scottish Independence. These lectures explore three key aspects of the Anglo-Scottish relationship during the Middle Ages.

Tickets are £9/£8 concessions (includes tea & cake), and booking is recommended as places are limited.
Visit: http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Why Poetry Matters
Part of the Why Philosophy Matters Series

With Professor Max de Gaynesford, University of Reading

Wednesday 3 December, 6‒7.30pm, Education Centre

Join esteemed scholars to talk about the hot topics in contemporary culture and philosophical thought. In partnership with Oxford Brookes University and sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Free, no booking required, seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Entry via St Giles’ Street, drinks from 5.45pm.

Oxford C.C.S. talk and discussion

All welcome.

For more information about the C.C.S. you can visit our website,www.communistcorrespondingsociety.org or follow us on Twitter, http://twitter.com/CCSoc.

Legendary Science-Fiction author Brian Aldiss will be celebrating the re-release of his mythological novel, ‘Jocasta’. In ‘Jocasta’, Aldiss brings vividly to life the ancient world of dreaming Thebes: a world of sun-drenched landscapes, golden dust, sphynxes, Furies, hermaphroditic philosophers, ghostly apparitions and ambivalent gods. Jocasta is also a strikingly effective contemplation of an older world order where the human mind is still struggling to understand itself and the nature of the world around it.

This is a launch party event.

This is a monthly free meeting. This week we have two main talks, one on creating 360degree tours of buildings using Google business, (basically using street view you can walk in and tour round certain buildings) and another creating a title sequence with After Effects & Photoshop. Guest speakers: Guy Henstock and Sathya Vijayendran

Public meeting. Twenty minute talk, one hour discussion. You’re welcome to come along just to listen, or participate actively in the discussion. Free entry, no need to book.

Brought to you by Blackwell’s Bookshop and the Ashmolean Museum, ‘Inspired by Blake’ is a two-week William Blake Festival celebrating the magnificent and visionary painter, poet, thinker and icon.

Blake’s visions have long been a topic of debate by scholars, artists and poets; and now, in this age of neuroscientific advancement, they are being considered by psychologists too. AXNS invites four panelists, including Buddhist poet Maitreyabandhu, Professor Christopher Rowland, and Professor Glyn Humphreys, Head of Department for Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford to consider the questions: How useful is it to look at Blake’s visions through Psychology? Does it detract from his artistic intent? And were Blake’s visions purely visual?

For information about the festival, including a full events listing, please visit the Inspired by Blake website. #inspiredbyblake

Ever more people are interested in the social impact that organisations are creating beyond their contributions to the economy (gross value added, employment, etc.). Despite an existent tradition of cost-benefit analyses and other types of evaluations, a genuine interest in assessing ‘social effects’ rigorously is only about to manifest itself. Yet, available methods for assessing social impact often leave social aspects like the strengthening of social cohesion, the enhancement of participation or the reduction of conflict relatively unaddressed.

The talk will outline how we can grasp such perceptibly unfathomable social effects, both conceptually and empirically.

Gorgi Krlev is a DPhil student at Kellogg College and a research associate at the Centre for Social Investment (CSI) at the University of Heidelberg.

CIS Event: A panel debate on the occasion of the publication of the controversial ‘Leo Strauss: Man of Peace’ with the author Robert Howse, New York University

Discussants: Janalee Cherneski (DPIR, University of Oxford), Aggie Hirst (City University London) and Eno Trimcev (Leuphana University)

Chair: Kalypso Nicolaïdis (St Antony’s College, University of Oxford)

Leo Strauss: Man of Peace provides the first comprehensive analysis of Leo Strauss’s writings on political violence, considering also what he taught in the classroom on this subject. In stark contrast to popular perception, Strauss emerges as a man of peace, favourably disposed to international law and sceptical of imperialism – a critic of radical ideologies (right and left) who warns of the dangers to free thought and civil society when philosophers and intellectuals ally themselves with movements that advocate violence.

Details of the book are here:

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-theory/leo-strauss-man-peace?format=PB?format=PB

Reviews of the book can be read here:

http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/friends-leo

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/athens-the-midway-defending-leo-strauss-11859

Twenty minute introductory talk, one hour discussion. All welcome.

Prof Wielenberg will make the case for a character trait that (i) is a virtue and (ii) is appropriately characterized as a secular version of humility. The connection with Lewis would be that the account draws on some of Lewis’s ideas about the nature of Christian humility.

by Oxford C. S. Lewis Society

Professor Traute Meyer, Southampton

Twenty minute talk, one hour discussion. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome.

In this lecture I argue that self-control problems typical arise from conflicts between smaller sooner and larger later rewards. I suggest that we often fail successfully to navigate these problems because of our commitment to a conception of ourselves as rational agents who answer questions about ourselves by looking to the world. Despite the attractions of this conception, I argue that it undermines efforts at self-control and thereby our capacity to pursue the ends we value. I suggest we think of self-control as a problem of self-management, whereby we manipulate ourselves.

Global Politics, Economy and Society Seminar with

Dr Seán Molloy (University of Kent) on

“Kant and the Political Theology of Perpetual Peace”

Venue: John Henry Brookes Building, room JHB206
Date: Monday 2 March 2015
Time: 4.15pm

All welcome!

‘The World(s) According to Quantum Mechanics by Professor David Wallace, Professor of Philosophy of Physics, University of Oxford

In this lecture I outline some of the main perspectives on self-control and its loss stemming from recent work in psychology. I focus in particular on the puzzle arising from the role of glucose in successful self-control. Glucose ingestion seems to boost self-control but there is good evidence that it doesn’t do this by providing fuel for the relevant mechanisms. I suggest that glucose functions as a cue of resource availability rather than fuel.

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo murders and the ensuing debate on freedom of religion vs freedom of expression, Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College Professor Sir Richard Sorabji CBE will deliver this timely lecture on the history and philosophical principles underlying the concept of free speech.

Twenty minute introductory talk, one hour discussion. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome.

There is evidence that self-control is a character trait. This evidence seems inconsistent with the management approach I advocate, since that approach urges that we look to external props for self-control, not to states of the agent. In this lecture I argue, that contrary to appearances, we should hesitate to think that people high in what is known as trait self-control have any such character trait. In fact, properly understood the evidence concerning trait self-control supports the management.

“Against the Flow: The Inspiration of Daniel in an Age of Relativism”

Daniel’s story is one of extraordinary faith in God lived out at the pinnacle of executive
power under Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon. What was it that gave Daniel and his
three friends the strength and conviction to be prepared, often at great risk, to swim against the flow?

To celebrate this new book, Prof. Lennox will give a presentation exploring this question.

Tickets are £10 and include light refreshments (see link for further information). The event will include a book signing and a reception.

Global Politics, Economy and Society Seminar with

Dr Cristina Masters (University of Manchester) on

“Resisting Biopolitics: Writing, Emotions & Bodies”

Venue: John Henry Brookes Building, room JHB206
Date: 16 March 2015
Time: 4.15pm

All welcome!

In this talk I explain the nature of national security interest in the burgeoning field of neuroscience and its implications for military and counter-intelligence operations. All welcome but booking is required.