Digest Week 2 Trinity Term 2026

Avicenna Reading Group

Convenor: Ibrahim Safri

Date: Tuesday, 5 May, 2–3:30pm

Venue: Magdalen College, Old Law Library (Lecture Room B)

The theory of time remains one of the most complex and significant subjects of inquiry, central to both philosophical and physical discourse globally. Throughout the history of world philosophy, this concept has been continually refined, spanning Late Antiquity and Neoplatonism through to Islamic, Medieval, and Early Modern traditions. Within the global corpus of Arabic philosophy, diverse interpretations of time have emerged, shaped by three primary perspectives that influenced Islamic medieval conceptions of this theory. This reading class will focus on Avicenna’s The Physics of The Healing, in which he presents various notions of time before establishing his own account.

Our objective is to engage in a profound reading of Avicenna’s thesis to determine the extent to which his theory of time represents a departure from Aristotelian thought, a continuation of the Peripatetic tradition, or an innovative synthesis. We will discuss how his contributions facilitated the development of this concept within the context of global philosophy.

Text: Avicenna, The Physics of The Healing; a Parallel English-Arabic Text. Translated by: Jon McGinnis. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2009. Chapter 10: Beginning the discussion about time

History and Philosophy of Science Reading Group

Date: Tuesday 5 May, 4pm - 5pm

Venue: Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

The History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) Reading Group, which is a joint venture of the Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology and the Faculty of Philosophy, will continue on even weeks in Trinity term. This term we are reading a book manuscript by James Ladyman, Nick Norman and Vanessa Seifert entitled A Philosophical History of Chemistry.

Anyone is free to join, but attendance is limited to the capacity of our booked room. Please write to the co-conveners (Alex Aylward (History, alexander.aylward@history.ox.ac.uk) & Sam Fletcher (Philosophy, sam.fletcher@merton.ox.ac.uk)) for further information.

Kyoto Prize at Oxford Lecture by Professor Carol Gilligan

Title: The audacity of listening

Date: 6 May 2026, 15:00-16:30

Venue: The Blavatnik School of Government or online

In her lecture, The Audacity of Listening, Professor Gilligan will reflect on how listening can reveal what is often left unsaid - particularly in relation to women’s voices in conversations about morality. Drawing on her lifelong work, she will explore listening not simply as a method, but as an ‘audacious' act: one that opens up deeper truths about what people think, feel and know, beyond what they believe they are expected to say.

She will also reflect on her recent novel Solstice, which extends these questions across generations and continents, asking how we come to know what is true - and what, and whom, we can trust. More information here