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

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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

‘Philosophy A-Level’ is a humorous talk about the importance of philosophy and ethics in schools told through the stories teaching teenagers in east London

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 cannot end poverty without ending energy poverty. Ever since the world’s first power plants whirred to life in 1882, we have seen how electricity is the lynchpin for development in all of its forms.

Manufacturing and industrial productivity, agriculture and food security, nutrition, hygiene, water, public health, education, even community engagement, in other words, daily life in a modern economy, demand access to reliable energy.

And yet despite significant progress over nearly 140 years, more than 800 million people around the world live without access to electricity, and hundreds of millions more struggle with unreliable or unaffordable service. Families are deprived of the means to labour productively and their quality of life and status in extreme poverty goes unchanged.

We need urgently to fast-track sustainable power solutions, investments, and partnerships across the globe to catalyze an energy transformation and accelerate sustainable, reliable and modern electrification for economic development.

In this book talk the Author, Carl Benedikt Frey, will discuss how the Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but how few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. Now that we are in the midst of another technological revolution how can the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present?

This talk will be followed by a book sale, signing and drinks reception. All welcome.

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

Michael Obersteiner will present new insights from co-producing a set of new sustainability scenarios.

Major sectoral transitions will be presented to achieve development targets in line with improved ecosystem and human health. He will conclude with an outlook on new ways to socialise findings from such global assessments.

This talk is part of the Oxford Martin School Lecture Series ‘Food futures: how can we safeguard the planet’s health, and our own?’

We are all living longer, but we are ill prepared, both as individuals and as a society, and attitudes towards ageing remain stubbornly negative, in spite of evidence that older people are some of the most satisfied with life. This session will debunk some myths, challenge stereotypes and consider what we can do to age well.

This talk is delivered by Penny Thewlis, Chief Executive of Age UK Oxfordshire.

With a background in public services, Penny joined Age UK Oxfordshire in 2000 to undertake a study of the needs and aspirations of older people in rural communities and stayed to work alongside older people and communities to implement the recommendations. Penny is passionate about asset based approaches, about changing the narrative on ageing and about ensuring older people have a voice.

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.

Geographers have long been interested in the spaces brought into being by the internet. In the early days of the Web, digital technologies were seen as tools that could bring a heterotopic cyberspace into being: a place beyond space de-tethered from the material world.

More recent framings instead see digital geographies as always-augmented, hybrid, and ontogenetic: integrally embedded into everyday life.

Against that backdrop, Professor Mark Graham will present findings from three large research projects about digital platforms. First, a large-scale digital mapping project that looks at how digital inequalities can become infused into our urban landscapes. Second, a study about the livelihoods of platform workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, early results from a new action research project (the Fairwork Foundation) designed to improve the quality of platform jobs.

In each case, the talk explores why understanding the ways that platforms command digital geographies is a crucial prerequisite for envisioning more equitable digital futures.

Please register via the link provided. This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome.

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.

Dr David Nabarro, former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Food Security and Nutrition, will give a talk on what implications there will be for the planet and us in linking nature, food and the climate.

Please register via the link provided. Followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

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.

Join us for a special lecture with St Cross alumna Lisa Downing, who will discuss the research behind her new book: Selfish Women. This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Lisa Downing is Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is a specialist in interdisciplinary sexuality and gender studies, critical theory, and the history of cultural concepts, focusing especially on questions of exceptionality, difficulty, and (ab)normality. Recent books include: The Subject of Murder: Gender, Exceptionality, and the Modern Killer (2013); Fuckology: Critical Essays on John Money’s Diagnostic Concepts (co-authored with Iain Morland and Nikki Sullivan, 2015); and After Foucault (as editor, 2018), as well as Selfish Women. Her next book project will be a short manifesto entitled Against Affect.

In this book talk, Professor Sonia Contera will talk about how Nanotechnology is transforming medicine and the future of biology.

Please register via the link provided. This book talk will be followed by a drinks reception, book sale and book signing, all welcome.

Inaugural event in our new events series focusing on responsible leadership: Driving Diversity and Inclusion Seminar Series.

Progress on diversity in the UK civil service and why it matters. How the dial only really shifted on gender, and why the focus is now on inclusion and addressing bullying and harassment. What the good leaders are doing?

Dame Sue Owen will give a talk followed by a Q&A with the audience moderated by Sue Dopson, Rhodes Trust Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Fellow of Green Templeton College, Deputy Dean of Saïd Business School.

Event Schedule:
17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception
19:45 – Close

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.

Since a change in planning rules in 1990, there has been a huge amount of archaeological work on development sites all over England. This work is required by planning permissions and paid for by the developers. The results have been astonishing. Thousands of important discoveries have been made, and views of England’s past are bring transformed by these. This talk will explain how archaeology on development sites takes place, and highlight some of the most interesting or unusual finds, from the Ebbsfleet prehistoric elephant (400,000 BC) to a Roman chariot-racing arena in Colchester and a Victorian communal toilet in York.

Roger Thomas is a professional archaeologist who has lived in Abingdon for much of his life. He spent many years working for English Heritage (now Historic England), where he was closely involved in many important national archaeological projects. He is a past chairman of AAAHS, and is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford.

Visitors are very welcome to attend meetings at a cost of £3.
If you want to join the AAAHS, there’s a Membership Form on our website.

New technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines.

In the past, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. Yet in A World Without Work, Daniel Susskind shows why this time really is different. Advances in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.

Susskind will argue that machines no longer need to reason like us in order to outperform us. Increasingly, tasks that used to be beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts – are now within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is real.

So how can we all thrive in a world with less work? Susskind will remind us that technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of mankind’s oldest problems: making sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenge will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the centre of our lives.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, book sale and signing, all welcome.

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.

One estimate suggests that $2.3trillion was invested in infrastructure worldwide last year.

That vast investment has provided roads, power plants, mobile phone networks, dams and recycling plants. Whether those investments have been sustainable is questionable.

As well as providing essential services that people need, infrastructure too often locks in carbon emissions, fragments habitats and opens them up for exploitation, appropriates land and exacerbates inequalities. In many respects, choices about infrastructure investment are a remarkable point of leverage, when the future course of development is set, literally, in concrete.Too often these decisions are subject to political patronage, rent seeking and worse.

This lecture will examine the many impacts that infrastructure can have on sustainable development, for better or for worse. Professor Hall will share experiences of establishing long-term plans for sustainable infrastructure in many countries around the world.

Part of the Oxford Martin School Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’