Chris Belshaw, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy will be giving a talk on The Language of Harm on 5 June 2013 at 2 pm, Meeting Room 11, Wilson A, 2nd Floor. All welcome, we’ll look forward to seeing you there! Follow this link for the abstract.
Phil Bates, (Open University Law School) will be giving a talk on Killing Law and Murdering Philosophy on 1 May 2013 at 2 pm, Meeting Rooms 1, 2, 3 Wilson A, Ground Floor. All welcome, we’ll look forward to seeing you there! Follow this link for the abstract.
We have received the sad news this week that Godfrey Vesey died last weekend. He was the founding Professor of Philosophy at The Open University from 1969 to 1985, PVC 1975-1976, Deputy Chair of Senate, 1976-77, Acting VC in 1980 and Honorary Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. His widow now lives in Bedford and his daughter is an Associate Lecturer. The funeral will take place at 3.15pm on Wednesday 3 April 2013 at St. Peter de Merton Church, De Parys Avenue, Bedford, MK40 2TX.
We are delighted to announce that Professor Rosalind Hursthouse, now of the University of Auckland and previously a member of the OU Philosophy Department, has now joined us as a Visiting Fellow.
Professor Derek Matravers (Open University) will be giving a talk on Life and Narrative on 9 January 2013 at 2 pm, Meeting Rooms 1, 2, 3 Wilson A, Ground Floor. All welcome, we’ll look forward to seeing you there! Follow this link for the abstract.
Many philosophers are interested in the politics of free speech and censorship. If this includes you, you may be interested in a series of podcasts on the topic that have just been produced by the Open University philosopher, Nigel Warburton.
The first episode has Nigel interviewing the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby. He studied philosophy at university and mentions Bentham and Mill, two philosophers students encounter on Exploring Philosophy (A222). Later interviewees include Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, the novelists Stephanie Merritt (aka S J Parris) and Ma Jian (author of Beijing Coma), Orwell's biographer D J Taylor, Burmese dissident comedian/poet Zarganar, Muslim feminist Irshad Manji, Natalia Koliada of the Free Belarus Theatre, and Denis MacShane. Go to the Free Speech Bites website.
Dr Lubomira Radoilska from University of Cambridge will be giving a talk on Moral responsibility and control on 7 November 2012 at 2 pm, Meeting Rooms 1, 2, 3 Wilson A, Ground Floor. All welcome, we’ll look forward to seeing you there! Follow this link for the abstract.
Nigel Warburton recently appeared on The Philosopher's Arms with Matthew Sweet to consider how our knowledge and expectations impinge upon how we ‘see’ art works. He also took part in a discussion on Radio 4's Start the Week which ranged over the dying art of handwriting, the rise of digital communication, tweeting, blogs and podcasts.
Nigel Warburton has been named as one of the top 100 tweeters you should follow by Matt Rudd in the Sunday Times magazine, 8 July:
Nigel Warburton: philosopher and writer
8,015 tweets, 24,248 followersIt’s hard to sound intellectual in 140 characters but Warbuton, a senior philosophy bod at the Open
University, manages it. Follow links to his thought-provoking podcast series, or just mull over musings such
as “Books may furnish a room, but they're a pain in the ass to write” and “Aphorisms open up thought.”
Enlightening.
Recordings from The Open University Ethics Centre and The Royal Institute of Philosophy Day Conference on Happpiness (14 April 2012) are now available to listen to online. These include:
The Faculty has decided to withdraw AA308 Thought and Experience: Themes in the Philosophy of Mind from October 2014. This means that the remaining presentations will be February 2012, October 2012 and last presentation will start in October 2013.
A new module, A333 Key questions in Philosophy, has been approved by the University and it is planned that the first presentation of this module will be in October 2014.
The OU has sponsored a set of free podcasts, made by Nigel Warburton and Dave Edmonds, called ‘Multiculturalism Bites’. This is a series of 10 interviews with leading thinkers who have contributed to the debate about multiculturalism. Listen to the podcasts in iTunes.
The pamphlet 'Picturing Philosophers', based on a tour of philosophers' portraits in London's National Portrait Gallery by Nigel Warburton, is available as a pdf [1.6 MB]. It focuses on figures such as Hobbes, Locke, Mill, Sartre, Russell and Iris Murdoch, exploring their philosophical ideas and raising the questions they considered.
Open Educational Resources relevant to As and A2 level philosophy are now available online, along with advice on teachers might adapt this material.
The Open University's lecture series on “Integrity in Public Life” explores some of the most pressing ethical dilemmas of our time. Four lectures were hosted at St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, London, during May and June 2009. You can listen to the lectures online now. The speakers and topics are as follows: Dr John Githongo on The Paradox of Two Recessions; Lord Butler on Integrity and Politics; Professor John Cottingham on Integrity and Fragmentation and Baroness O'Neil on Trustworthiness, Accountability and Character.