Digest Week 6 Michaelmas Term 2023

MT23, Week 6 (12th-18th November)

If you have entries for the weekly Digest, please send information to admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk by midday, Wednesday the week before the event. 

Notices - other Philosophy events, including those taking place elsewhere in the university and beyond

 

'Knowing me, knowing you -- another dimension to the problem of Other Minds'

Speaker: Dr Anita Avramides

Date/Time: 6:30-7:30 pm Monday 13 November

Location: Radcliffe Humanities Lecture Room

In this talk Dr Avramides will introduce a new way of thinking about the problem of other minds. Dr Avramides shall first outline the problem and some of the ways philosophers have suggested of responding to it. Dr Avramides shall then turn to consider some work by Stanley Cavell which offers us a very different way of looking at our relationship to others. 

 

 

Harris Manchester's Upton Lecture for 2023

Professor Susan James FBA: 'Fake News: Learning from Spinoza'

Date: Tuesday 14 November 2023

Time: 5.15pm

Venue: Harris Manchester College Chapel

Susan James is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. She has held faculty positions at the University of Connecticut and the University of Cambridge, and visiting positions at many other prestigious institutions. 

Throughout her work, Professor James tries to bring the history of philosophy into conversation with its contemporary counterpart. Her historical studies aim to illuminate contemporary philosophical problems. In this lecture, Professor James will explore how the work of 17th century Dutch-born philosopher Baruch Spinoza can help us to examine questions of truth in our own time. 

The Upton Lecture is named after Charles Barnes Upton, Professor of Philosophy at the College between 1875-1903. The lecture is held annually and alternates between philosophical and religious themes. This year’s lecture has been made possible by the generous support of The Sekyra Foundation.

This event is free and open to all: please visit the Eventbrite page to register. 

 

 

Hegel Reading Group

We shall be meeting Wednesdays 6-7.30 pm on Skype; please email louise.braddock@philosophy.ox.ac.uk or susanne.herrmann-sinai@philosophy.ox.ac.uk for the Skype link. This term we are reading texts by other authors discussing passages and problems of Hegel’s Anthropology, in the ‘Philosophy of Mind’ (translation is by Wallace and Miller) but we will work from the Michael Inwood revision (OUP 2007). Texts are shared via dropbox link and to be read in advance. Updates are posted on hegelinoxford.wordpress.com.

 

 

St Cross Ethics Lecture

'Should people have indefinite lifespans? Ethical and social considerations in life-extension' by Professor João Pedro de Magalhães (University of Birmingham; OUC Academic Visitor)

Date/Time: Thursday 16 November between 5-6pm

Venue: St Cross Room, St Cross College, 61 St Giles, Oxford

Abstract: People have always sought eternal life and everlasting youth. Recent technological breakthroughs and our growing understanding of ageing have given strength to the idea that a cure for human ageing can eventually be developed. In this talk, I will discuss the prospect of eradicating human ageing, its potential social consequences, and ethical implications. I will argue that developing the means to abolish ageing is an ethical endeavour because the goal of biomedical research is to allow people to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Nonetheless, radical increases in human lifespan raise major social and ethical questions, which will be discussed.

Book to attend in person at St Cross College or Register for the Zoom webinar.