18 January  

Dr Vanessa Dodd What's in a Story? A Philosophical Investigation

Stories are so commonplace that most people never give them a moment's thought, or dismiss them as mere entertainment. Yet stories and story-telling are fundamental in all cultures and play a role in all aspects of life. In this talk Vanessa will explore the ways in which stories have blossomed into a variety of forms and media, especially in our postmodern age when stories and narratives have become central to philosophical and social concerns. She will even attempt to deconstruct one or two

15 February 2022

John Clarke on: Beyond the Brain: the Mystery of Min

Modern philosophy has given special attention to the relationship between the body and the conscious mind, and this talk will examine a variety of views on this topic, some identifying mind with brain, others arguing that conscious mind transcends the body in certain respects, and is even a reality that is essentially different from the material world.

15 March 2022

John Clarke  on “The Enlightenment: Did Russia Get It?”

The philosophical background to the ongoing catastrophe in the Ukraine.

19 April 2022

Juliet Trewellard  Nature, Memory & the Imagination: The English Romantics. 1790 - 1820

Juliet looked at the Romantic movement, its origins and its art, both the visual arts and poetry, and in particular she will look at the notion of the Sublime, essentially a rapturous response to Nature, or a representation of nature which could lead to a transcending of the mundane and the earthly. It was a passionate response which Edmund Burke, who developed the theory, called it "the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling". In England, especially with the first-generation Romantics - Wordsworth and Coleridge - the response to the Sublime was a focus on the idea of the power of the imagination, which they felt could reflect a kind of animated spirit in nature to produce emotion. This remembered emotion can act as a later force for good and for the expansion of the mind. Coleridge's theory of the Imagination proposed that it was an active power, which could reconcile opposites - the link between man and the world. In response to this Juliet looked at the ideas, the paintings and the poetry of this dramatically changing period in cultural history.

17 May 2022

15 June

20 July

21 September 2015

19 October

16 November

21 December