{"id":23312,"date":"2023-05-03T14:54:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T13:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=23312"},"modified":"2023-05-03T14:54:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T13:54:12","slug":"the-open-universitys-digital-treasure-trove-of-philosophy-greats-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/the-open-universitys-digital-treasure-trove-of-philosophy-greats-launches\/","title":{"rendered":"The Open University\u2019s digital treasure trove of philosophy greats launches"},"content":{"rendered":"

A film archive of some of the mid-to-late 20th<\/sup> Century\u2019s finest minds in philosophy from the western world has been made available to the public through The Open University\u2019s digital archive.<\/p>\n

The line-up of brilliant deep thinkers, both men and women, from the UK and abroad were filmed being interviewed by the OU from 1969 onwards, when the OU was in its infancy and men were about to start wearing satin shirts with ruffles and hip-hugging bell bottoms.<\/p>\n

While some of the more muted 70s fashions are evident in the videos, the Philosophy In The Open Exhibition<\/a> is much more focused on a stunning array of philosophy greats including Oxford professor Sir Bernard Williams<\/a> talking to Sir Jonathan Miller<\/a>, physician, playwright and author debating \u201cIs social science really necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others depict Susan Wilson<\/a>, also known as Susan Khin-Zaw, giving a talk about logic in the EDI section of the exhibition. Even then, the OU was aware of the need for diversity in its programming; there were female presenters and guests and Susan Khin-Zaw, who was a lecturer, steered some of the broadcasts at the time.<\/p>\n

You can also see Oxford\u2019s Professor Gilbert Ryle<\/a> discussing The Concept of Mind<\/em>; an interview with one of the most influential moral philosophers of the mid-20th<\/sup> Century, R.M. Hare<\/a>; and Harvard professor BJ Skinner discussing Free Will<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OU academics rediscovered the archive when they came across snippets being shared by others on YouTube. Now around 20 videos, the very best of the archive, have been chosen for public display and a treasure-trove resource for philosophy and politics students alike. Most are around 30 minutes long.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Professor Derek Matravers<\/p><\/div>\n

Derek Matravers, Professor of Philosophy at the OU, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are about 20 essays from academics today commenting on the videos. We have a lot more material but we think we\u2019ve got the best of them.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was able to meet some of the philosophers, too, including Sir Bernard. He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people think he was the most intelligent man of the second half of the 20th century.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the former Provost of King\u2019s College, Cambridge, and studied at Oxford\u2019s Balliol College, but he was also a big public figure; an amazingly clever man, you just didn\u2019t want to argue with him, but he was a decent bloke as well. A lovely chap.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBack then the OU used the BBC\u2019s The Learning Zone, which operated from 11pm overnight and that is when these videos would have been aired for student study.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It meant a late night for them as this was before state-of-the-art video cassette recorders came onto the market.<\/p>\n

Other philosophers that feature in the archive include: A.J. Ayer<\/a> discussing \u201cOther Minds\u201d, Peter Strawson<\/a> discussing \u201cTruth\u201d, and Anthony Quinton<\/a> discussing \u201cMind and Brain\u201d.<\/p>\n

If you are interested visit the Philosophy In The Open Exhibition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Picture credit: Ping198 for Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A film archive of some of the mid-to-late 20th Century\u2019s finest minds in philosophy from the western world has been made available to the public through The Open University\u2019s digital archive. The line-up of brilliant deep thinkers, both men and women, from the UK and abroad were filmed being interviewed by the OU from 1969 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":23319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15],"tags":[860,1525,1640],"class_list":["post-23312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-social-sciences","category-society-politics","tag-faculty-of-fass","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}