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The Great Debate 10th Anniversary


The Great Debate Tenth Anniversary Human Nature Series
Progress of the Human Mind: From
Enlightenment to Postmodernism 
with Caspar Hewett & David Large Selfish Genes, Sex and Sanity with Christopher Badcock Information-processing in Robotics, Biology and Philosophy: 
Unnoticed Connections with Aaron Sloman Agents of Change? Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature

The Great Debate team are proud to announce our 10th year of organising courses, workshops and public debates for a general audience. As you can see on this page we have had an exciting year and we still have one event to come ... we are very privileged to have Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens in Newcastle for a lunchtime discussion on What is radical politics today? on 5th December. Come along, hear the arguments and have your say!

Click here to return to 10th Anniversary page


Events for 2008

The Great Debate 10th Anniversary 2008

What is radical politics today?
Authority, Respect & Human Potential
Developing World Challenges
Progress of the Human Mind: From Enlightenment to Postmodernism
Sustainable Energy Debate
Selfish Genes, Sex, and Sanity
Information-processing in Robotics, Biology and Philosophy
Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature
The Great Debate @ Battle of Ideas


The Great Debate: What is radical politics today?
12.30-1.30pm, Monday, 5th December 2008
Fine Art Lecture Theatre, Newcastle University

Newcastle University Part of the Newcastle University public lecture series

Convened by Jonathan Pugh

Speakers:
Will Hutton, Chief Executive of The Work Foundation
Professor Lord Giddens, Member of the House of Lords

What is the nature of radical politics today?
How should we describe its character?
What is thought of as radical politics at this moment?
What is not? Why?

This debate is part of the What is radical politics today? project. The project explores the nature and character of radical politics today, examines what it means to be engaged in radical politics and explores how radical politics works to shape and frame what we think of ourselves, issues and debates. Initiated and directed by Jonathan Pugh, and including fifty of the worlds leading commentators, the ongoing project is aiming to develop a sense and feeling about the present nature and character of radical politics. Click here for further details.

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Authority, Respect and Human Potential in the 21st Century
7:00 – 8:30pm, Monday, 21st January 2008
Devonshire Building, Newcastle University

The Great Debate opened its 10th Anniversary celebration with a discussion exploring the themes of authority and human potential, examining how they are linked to the erosion of respect in modern society.

What is meant by authority, respect and human potential today? Since the Enlightenment the idea of the subject has had a central place in the way that we think about ourselves. This understanding of what it is to be human rests on the idea that we are active agents who do things for reasons and shape the world to our own ends. Yet in recent years this view of human nature has become deeply unpopular and we are encouraged to think of ourselves as objects at the mercy of outside forces. At the same time something else seems to be contributing to this historical moment; something that has been left unexplored by many thinkers. This is the erosion of respect for authority, reflected in modern cynicism about politics and a deep distrust of experts. How closely connected are these changes and how are we to understand them?

Introduced by Dr Caspar Hewett


The Great Debate: Developing World Challenges
9am – 4pm, Saturday, 15th March 2008
Lindisfarne Room
King's Road Centre
Newcastle University

Location Map

Sponsored by
Economic and Social Research Council and Newcastle University

Sponsored by Newcastle University and Economic and Social Research Council
Sponsored by Newcastle University & Economic and Social Research Council
One day workshop organised by The Great Debate and WORLDwrite. Workshop focusing on two new documentaries made by Chew On It Productions: I'm A Subsistence Farmer... Get Me Out Of Here! explores the fact that whilst Westerners celebrate nature and complain about consumer lifestyles, many in the developing world yearn for the comforts of modernity. Keeping Africa Small examines Western NGO practices in Africa: However well meaning they may be, NGO programmes often annoy everyone from fishermen to shanty town inhabitants.

Video of Keeping Africa Small Debate
Video of I'm a Subsistence Farmer ... Get Me Out Of Here! debate
This challenging, exciting event examined the issues raised by the films and provided an opportunity to learn about documentary making. In session 1 the crew who made the documentaries shared tips on no to low budget broadcast quality production, discussing how and why they made the films. Sessions 2 and 3 opened with a showing of a half hour documentary followed by a debate. A panel including one of the film makers discussed issues raised by the film and the audience given plenty of opportunity to ask questions and make points from the floor.

Speakers
Ceri Dingle, Director of WORLDwrite and Chew on it Productions
Viv Regan, Producer, WORLDwrite and Chew on it Productions
Kim Tan, Campaigns Officer for Oxfam UK
Barry K.Gills, Professor of Global Politics, Newcastle University
John Gowing, Reader in Agricultural Water Management, Newcastle University
Bill Colwell, Atlantic Pictures
Hilaire Agnama, Development Education Worker

Click Here for full details of event
Click here for edited video of Keeping Africa Small debate
Click here for edited video of I'm a Subsistence Farmer ... Get Me Out of Here! debate

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Northumbria University

The Complexity and Change Network in association with
The Great Debate and Newcastle Philosophy Society present

Progress of the Human Mind: From Enlightenment to Postmodernism
9am – 4.30pm, Saturday, 27th September 2008
Room D112, Ellison Building
University of Northumbria at Newcastle

David Large Caspar Hewett The thinkers of the Enlightenment celebrated a notion of progress that embraced the methods of the Scientific Revolution and aspired to improve the human condition through social advance combined with scientific discovery. Yet by the beginning of the new millennium the notion of progress had become associated primarily with technological change and the worst excesses of its application in the course of the twentieth century. What are the implications of this today and for the future?

This one day workshop will examine the changing nature of society’s understanding of the meaning of ‘progress’ and how it relates to the way that humanity is perceived today. Thinkers discussed will include Condorcet, Kant, Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte and Michel Foucault. Introduced by Caspar Hewett and David Large. Open to all.

NOTES

Sketch of Condorcet's Sketch by Caspar Hewett
Henri de Saint-Simon: The Great Synthesist by Caspar Hewett
Auguste Comte – High Priest of Positivism by Caspar Hewett

Come along, hear the arguments and have your say

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Durham University Northumbria University Newcastle University

ignite one north east Our Newcastle

sustainable energy debate 2008

in association with
North East Forum for Climate Change Research (NEFCC)
Tuesday, 7th October 2008

Newcastle Business School
University of Northumbria at Newcastle

Featuring:
Jim Skea, Research Director, UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)
Dermot Roddy, Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research
Kate Theobald, Sustainable Cities Research Institute

Chair:
Prof Lynn Dobbs, Dean, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Northumbria University

Dermot Roddy
In the context of both mounting anxiety over climate change and predictions that the worldwide peak of hydrocarbon production will occur before 2021, the North East is striving to become a global leader in the shift to a low-carbon energy economy. Such transitions typically span decades - energy infrastructure takes years to develop and new energy technologies are likely to take time to mature. So, what are the prospects of seeing a widespread transition to a sustainable energy economy? What are the barriers? What will be the main drivers of change? How might the UK’s energy mix evolve over the next 40 years? And what of demand management? What obligations do we have as citizen-consumers?

Come along, hear the arguments and have your say

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Selfish Genes, Sex, and Sanity
Sponsored by
School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Northumbria

7 – 8.30pm, Tuesday, 14th October 2008
University of Northumbria at Newcastle

What are the connections between mental illness and genetics?

Northumbria University
Mental illnesses like autism and schizophrenia appear to have many different causes, some environmental and some seemingly genetic. In this talk Christopher Badcock outlines a new theory that seeks to explain many of the facts in relation to conflict between genes expressed from each parent's copy: so-called genomic imprinting. Not only does this reveal the strange genetics involved in these illnesses and the way environmental factors can mimic them, the new theory also casts a revealing new light on what we take to be normality and has far-reaching implications for our understanding of human nature.
Speaker: Christopher Badcock, LSE

Come along, hear the arguments and have your say

This event is FREE but BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL

Contact:

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Information-processing in Robotics, Biology and Philosophy:
Unnoticed Connections

Sponsored by
School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Northumbria

7 – 8.30pm, Tuesday, 21st October 2008

Lecture Theatre CCE1 002
Newcastle Business School
University of Northumbria at Newcastle

What can biologists, roboticists and philosophers learn from one another?

Northumbria University
What can computer science tell us about what biological systems do and how they do it? Is it possible to replicate or model those chemical information-processing functions in digital electronic computing systems? What are the implications of recent developments in computer science and software engineering in understanding the nature of causality? Aaron Sloman, author of Computer Revolution in Philosophy: Philosophy, Science and Models of Mind delves into the world of connections between ideas developed in computer science, biology and philosophy, providing new insights into some fundamental questions about the nature of consciousness and free will.
Speaker: Aaron Sloman, University of Birmingham
Chair: Aidan Burton, Newcastle University

Come along, hear the arguments and have your say

FREE but BOOKING ESSENTIAL

Contact:

Click here for full details

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Agents of Change? Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature
Sponsored by
School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Northumbria
and
Edinburgh University Press

Northumbria University Edinburgh University Press

9am – 4pm, Saturday, 25th October 2008

Lecture Theatre CCE1-003

(Break-out Rooms: CCE1-018, CCE1-022, CCE1-021)
Newcastle Business School
University of Northumbria at Newcastle

Discussion following key note talk by Raymond Tallis on Darwinism without Darwinitis
Darwinism or Darwinitis?
Key note speech by Raymond Tallis author The Hand: A Philosophical Enquiry into Human Being
Chair: David O'Toole, The Great Debate
Darwinism without Darwinitis: text of talk with slides
Click here for videos

The Great Human Nature Debate
Is there a universal human nature? If so, what do we all have in common? What makes us different from animals? Do the defining factors even exist?
Speakers:
Rita Carter, Caspar Hewett, Thomas Pink and Kevin Yuill: 
The Great Human Nature Debate
Rita Carter, author Mapping the Mind, Conciousness
Caspar Hewett, Director, The Great Debate
Thomas Pink, author The Psychology of Freedom, Free Will: A Very Short Introduction
Chair: Kevin Yuill, Sunderland University
            Click here for videos from this debate

What can science tell us about human nature?
Can we explain the mind and consciousness in terms of brain function? Can we understand modern human behaviour in terms of our evolutionary heritage? Is science the right place to start if we want to understand human nature?
What can science tell us about human nature?
Bruce Charlton, Pauline Hadaway and Igor Aleksander
Speakers:
Igor Aleksander, author The World in My Mind, How to Build a Mind
Bruce Charlton, author Psychiatry and the Human Condition
Kenan Malik, author Man, Beast and Zombie
Chair: Pauline Hadaway, Director, Belfast Exposed
            Click here for videos from this debate

Click here for full details

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Flush it!
A film première hosted by WORLDwrite & The Great Debate
Royal College of Art, London
2nd November 2008

Flush it!
Flush it! is a documentary aiming to put aspirations for Western levels of water provision and sanitation on the map for developing countries. The film interweaves concerns about local water shortages, global water scarcity and toilet history with aspirations for grand projects and excellent loos. Eritrean refugee Tiba is at the centre of the film. Pontificating from her own bath full of bubbles Tiba considers everything from depleted aquifers to desalination to Livingstone’s plea not to flush. Tiba’s wet dream informs us pit latrines stink, while experts help flush the crap and remind us that water can never run out.

Caspar Hewett Viv Regan
The documentary includes witness testimony from Dr Caspar Hewett, researcher in water resources; James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University; Angela Lee, Exhibition Curator, Gladstone Toilet Museum; Terry Woolliscroft, Customer Manager, Twyford Bathrooms; James Heartfield, writer and lecturer; Robin Oakley, Senior Climate Campaigner, Greenpeace UK; Tony Rachwal, Thames Water Research & Development Director

The film’s première will be followed by a question and answer session with
Dr Caspar Hewett, Chair of The Great Debate and Viv Regan, the film’s producer.
Chair: Ceri Dingle, Director of WORLDwrite and Chew on it Productions

Click here for full details of this session and the Battle of Ideas 2008
Click here for Flush it! website


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