26 January: The Future of News
Speaker: Prof. Tim Luckhurst
The role of traditional journalism in the age of blogs, twitter and 'have your say'. Has the newspaper been made obsolete by the web site? And how much do we know about who produces the media we now consume? (For example, did we write this paragraph, or copy it from the Big Ideas website. Aha!)
23 February: Is There An Art To Living?
Speaker: Mark Vernon
How can we practice philosophy as an art of living, who should our inspiration be, and why does it matter?
30 March: Does Education Need Theories?
Speaker: Prof. Paul Standish
What is the status of educational theories? Are they scientific? Are they objectively testable? Or are they unavoidably political, too? Would we be better off without them, or is the problem just that we don’t know enough? Is there some natural way to “do” education without theories at all?
27 April: Just a theory - can there be certainty in science?
Speaker: Prof. John Worrall
Once we have have proofs for hypotheses, to what extent can we claim they are true? Established scientific knowledge has been overturned before - surely science’s claims are, in the end, ‘just theories’? But if we can’t rely on science to give us access to truth about the world, what can we rely on?
25 May: Partisanship
Speaker: Dr Jonathan White
The political devisiveness of the past, one group crudely set against another, is on its way out, to be replaced by a more technocratic approach: “What works is what counts.” To what extent is this analysis actually true or even desireable? In fact do we need partisanship for a democracy and a healthy society to function well?
All events take place at the Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place. All begin at 8pm and are free to attend.
