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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Professor Neil Davidson (Glasgow) ‘Why wasn’t England like China? Western absolutism and the road to the tributary state’

Professor David Parker (Leeds) ‘Absolute Monarchy: Recharging Feudalism’

What does our “tax-competitive” regime mean, and whose interests does it serve? Discussion with John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network.

Global Politics, Economy and Society Seminar with

Prof Nathan Widder (Royal Holloway, University of London) on

“The Temporal Structure of Sovereignty”

Venue: John Henry Brookes Building, room JHB206
Date: Monday 20 April 2015
Time: 4.15pm

All welcome!

Ten years ago, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman shone a light on how the world was ‘flattening’; how the convergence of world events and new technologies had opened up the global supply chain to previously excluded economies. His book The World is Flat captured a pivotal moment in the 21st Century, examining the trends, opportunities and challenges this ‘next new world’ presented to countries, companies and individuals.

Ten years on, the writer will offer new insights into the effects of technological change, globalisation, economic crisis and political turmoil, in a lecture that promises to be thought-provoking and challenging.

Registration required – http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/event/2122

What would it mean, in the 21st century, for economic growth to come to an end? Why might this happen? Is a growthless or steady-state economy to be avoided—or, instead, pursued—at all costs? Is it true, as Schumpeter said, that “a stationary capitalism would be a contradictio in adjecto” or is a postgrowth capitalism perfectly feasible? The talk will hazard answers to these questions, and another: What are the prospects for a steady-state socialism or communism (or whatever you wish to call it)?

Benjamin Kunkel is a founding editor of n+1 magazine and the author of Indecision, a novel; Buzz, a play; and Utopia or Bust, a collection of essays about contemporary left economic and cultural theory. He writes for The London Review of Books, Dissent, Salvage, and other publications. He is at work on a book about the past and future of capitalism.

Part of Book at Lunchtime, a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines. Free, all welcome – no booking required. Join us for a sandwich lunch from 12:45, with discussion from 13:00 to 13:45.

Jim Reed (Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature, University of Oxford) will discuss his book Light in Germany: Scenes from an Unknown Enlightenment with:

Joachim Whaley (Professor of German History and Thought, University of Cambridge)
Kevin Hilliard (Lecturer in German, University of Oxford)

About the book

Germany’s political and cultural past from ancient times through World War II has dimmed the legacy of its Enlightenment, which these days is far outshone by those of France and Scotland. In this book, T. J. Reed clears the dust away from eighteenth-century Germany, bringing the likes of Kant, Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, and Gotthold Lessing into a coherent and focused beam that shines within European intellectual history and reasserts the important role of Germany’s Enlightenment.

Reed looks closely at the arguments, achievements, conflicts, and controversies of these major thinkers and how their development of a lucid and active liberal thinking matured in the late eighteenth century into an imaginative branching that ran through philosophy, theology, literature, historiography, science, and politics. He traces the various pathways of their thought and how one engendered another, from the principle of thinking for oneself to the development of a critical epistemology; from literature’s assessment of the past to the formulation of a poetic ideal of human development. Ultimately, Reed shows how the ideas of the German Enlightenment have proven their value in modern secular democracies and are still of great relevance—despite their frequent dismissal—to us in the twenty-first century.