The London Lecture Series
The London Lecture Series features philosophical discussions on mental health, psychosis, and the connections between mental health and concepts like race and evolution. Each lecture explores these topics through the lens of philosophy, drawing on the 2023/4 series. The podcast aims to make complex philosophical ideas accessible to a general audience.
Episodes
Wittgenstein and his impact upon Anglophone philosophy, Peter Hacker
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Peter Hacker. He discusses the salient achievements of Wittgenstein’s two masterpieces, the Tractatus and the Investigations, and their influences on philosophy.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Social Equality: Then And Now, Jonathan Wolff
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Jonathan Wolff, who explores how ideas of relational equality have developed in the past 100 years.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Imagining Democracy, Michele M. Moody-Adams
In this London Lecture, Professor Michele M. Moody-Adams will explore the role of imagination in political communities as democracies.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Is Philosophy a Science?, Timothy Williamson
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Timothy Williamson. He asks what it might mean to call philosophy a science, and explores different views of the relation between philosophy and science over the past century.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Apocalyptic Technology: Naturalism and Nihilism, Mazviita Chirimuuta
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Dr Mazviita Chirimuuta. Science assumes the universe is comprehensible to the human mind. AI tech casts doubt on this. So, should scientists give up on their goal?Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Developments in Feminist Philosophy, Clare Chambers
Over the last 100 years the condition of women in society has changed and so has feminist philosophy. Professor Clare Chambers will reflect on the philosophy, politics, and practice of sex discrimination as it has developed over the past century.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Why Does Philosophy Have a History?, Michael Rosen
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Michael Rosen. Unlike other disciplines, the history of philosophy does not involve the accumulation of knowledge or the resolution of problems. But why?Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
The You Turn, Naomi Eilan
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Naomi Eilan. She offers an account of second person awareness, mutual I-you relations, and the essential link between second person awareness and ethics.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Empathy and Ethics: A Complicated Relation?, Rowan Williams
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Dr Rowan Williams. Is empathy required for ethical values? How we can hang on to a proper valuation of empathic understanding without sentimentality.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Avicennan and Cartesian Doubt, Peter Adamson
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Peter Adamson, who will argue that Avicennan and Cartesian “arguments from doubt” may actually be stronger than they seem.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
The Most Permanent Interests of the Human Spirit, John Haldane
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor John Haldane. He looks back at philosophy since 1925, arguing for a kind of philosophical humanism that was more prominent a century ago than it is today.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Why philosophers need to think about pregnancy, Fiona Woollard
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Fiona Woollard. She explores how philosophy can help us to understand pregnancy and improve the treatment of people who are pregnant.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
What became of the public philosopher?, Regina Rini
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Regina Rini. She explores why we no longer need philosophers as all-purpose public sages.Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
The Problematic and the Unproblematic, Nikhil Krishnan
This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Dr Nikhil Krishnan. The politics of the last decade have been accused of moralistic excess. If this is fair, how might moral philosophy cure us of moralism?Part of TRIP's Centenary Lectures 2025-6: Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect.
Choosing how we Represent the Past; Derek Matravers
This lecture is presented by Derek Matravers, and discusses how the choices we make in framing the past can influence our views on it.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Proust’s Theory of Memory and Knowledge; Tom Stern
This lecture is presented by Tom Stern, exploring the phenomenon of involuntary memory in Proust’s work.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Who should we remember, and for how long? A theory of justice for public commemoration; James Wilson
This lecture is presented by James Wilson, exploring how to reconcile different reasons for public remembrance.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Can memories be unjust?; Katherine Puddifoot
Katherine Puddifoot explores how social stereotypes shape our recollections and how this can lead to injustice in personal memories.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Remembering the dead; Kathleen Higgins
This lecture is presented by Kathleen Higgins, exploring how memories and new insights help us honor the dead and integrate their presence into our lives.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Trauma, emotion, and memory; Michael Brady
In this episode, Michael Brady explores how memory can contribute to post-traumatic growth, examining the role of emotional memories in recovery.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
On Being Emotionally Haunted by One’s Past, Matthew Ratcliffe
In this talk Matthew Ratcliffe discusses the broader conception of human emotional experience through the lens of being haunted by one’s past.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Insta-Worthy Memories and Filtered Truth: The Effects of Technology on Our Personal Histories and Records of the Past
In this episode Kieron O’Hara examines how digital technology shapes our memories and alters our perception of the past, questioning the integrity of human memory in the age of social media and AI.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Conservation as a Method of Remembering (and forgetting) - Erich Hatala Matthes
In this episode, Erich Matthes navigates questions of conservation, and how some easily overlooked aspects of conservation can render its relationship with remembering more complex than it initially appears.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
Forgiveness: Do we need it? - Lucy Allais
In this lecture, Lucy Allais considers the reasons philosophers have given for thinking that forgiveness is puzzling, and argue that they are key to understanding why we need it – but also why we don’t always have to forgive.Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
How We Remember and Forget Online; Alessandra Tanesini
In this talk Alessandra Tanesini explores how Social Networking Sites, especially Facebook, act as platforms where memories can be shared, individuals memorialised, and where at times some feel shunned and forgotten. Alessandra delves into the potential consequences of offloading one’s private memories onto public digital platforms .Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Rememberin
Remember Who You Are: Personal Identity and Memory; Presented by Marya Schechtman
We all have treasured memories, but what, exactly, is it that makes them so valuable to us? In this talk, Marya Schechtman explores this question, proposing that one source of value is the role such memories can play in constituting and maintaining both personal identity and intimate social relationships. But what are the implications of this, ethical or otherwise, for our practices of remembering
Trauma, Emotion, and Memory; Presented by James Dawes
How does memory help some people grow after trauma? Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is a term which has been extensively studied by psychologists for the past 30 years, but also represents a new version of an ancient idea present in theology, philosophy, and cultural narratives – namely, that great good can come from adversity and suffering. In his talk, James Dawes explores the role of memory in PTG.
The Importance of Forgetting; Presented by Rima Basu
Welcome to the London Lecture Series 2024-25! This year our talks focus on questions surrounding the theme of "Remembering and Forgetting."In this first talk of our latest series, Rima Bisu explores the important role forgetting plays in facilitating and protecting moral goods, such as forgiveness and privacy. Forgetting plays an indispensable role in our lives. Sometimes we want aspec
Rethinking Disenchantment and the Immanent Frame; Presented by Camilia Kong
Why is it so tempting to understand spirituality / religion as counter to our conception of mental health, both in terms of its causality and its therapeutic restoration? Camilia Kong seeks to provide a philosophical diagnosis of the problem through Taylor’s discussion of the ‘immanent frame’ in Western modernity, and in so doing, provide the conceptual space for enriching understanding of diverge
Beyond Psychiatry: Rethinking Madness Outside Medicine; Presented by Justin Garson
Since the 1970s, psychiatry has been in the grip of a paradigm I call ‘madness-as-dysfunction’. In this view, mental disorders happen when something inside the person isn’t working as it should, or is ‘broken.’ In his previous work, Justin Garson has identified an alternate paradigm, which he calls ‘madness-as-strategy,’ which sees mental illness in terms of purpose, adaptation and function. In th
Mad Knowledge and Relations; Presented by Jasna Russo and Erick Fabris
Is mad life possible? Constrained by everyday mentalism, and controlled by various forms of psychiatrization of our biographies, we ask – can we live the lives we dream rather than dreaming that we live? Jasna Russo looks at the processes of knowledge making on what is considered madness and our ability to address each other in the second person, as you and me. Erick Fabris revisits a life of acti
Ethnic Inequalities in Experience of Mental Distress; Presented by Kam Bhui
Over six decades of research confirm there are ethnic inequalities in the experiences and outcomes of severe mental illness. The reasons for these differences have been debated, some arguing they meet treatment needs, others say they are manifestations of structural racism. Kim Bhui shares his views on conceptual confusions, causes, and remedies by drawing on recent Lived Experience Data on compu
The Person in Psychiatry; Presented by Sanneke de Haan
Many people suffer from psychiatric disorders and mental distress. But how are we to understand these problems, and how are we to treat them? Sanneke de Haan argues that we need to look at their developmental history, the social and cultural practices they take part in, and their existential (self)understanding. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
How Can we Make Progress in Mental Healthcare Research?; Presented by Neil Armstrong and Nicola Byrom
At present, psychiatry and psychology research in mental healthcare is focused on interventions. In contrast, social science and humanities research pursues its own, sometimes rather theoretically-driven agenda. In this lecture, Dr Armstrong and Dr Byrom, bring together these disparate fields of research with the aim of promoting more productive interdisciplinary interaction. Part of the London Le
Communicating to Increase Agency in Youth Mental Health; Presented by Rose McCabe, Lisa Bortolotti, and Michele Lim
Rose Mcabe, Lisa Bortolotti, and Michele Lim examine video-recorded encounters between young people and mental healthcare practitioners in emergency services, and describe communication that adopts an agential stance towards the young person.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Mental Disorder and the Criminal Law; Presented by Claire Hogg
Claire Hogg discusses the theoretical basis for the defence of legal “insanity”. She explorse a number of competing analyses by which the relevance of a defendant’s mental disorder to their criminal culpability may be understood, including counterfactual analyses and capacity models.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Health and Disease: Experimental Philosophy of Medicine; Presented by Somogy Varga and Andrew J. Latham
Somogy Varga and Andrew J. Latham report results from a series of experimental philosophy studies which aimed to examine how people understand and deploy concepts of health and disease, and the factors that influence their health-related judgments.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Who Gets to Call Whom Mad?; Presented by Richard Gipps
Richard Gipps discusses the question of who gets to call whom mad, and with what right, and confronts the idea that the world of the 'mad' person is any less valid than that of the 'sane'.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Understanding Suicide and Assisted Dying; Presented by Mona Gupta
Can assisted dying for persons with mental disorders be permitted on ethical grounds? What should the criteria be for allowing a person to make the choice to end their own life? Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Beyond Psychiatric Diagnosis: Presented by Lucy Johnstone and Mary Boyle
Mary Boyle & Lucy Johnstone examine the downfalls of the traditional methods of psychiatric diagnosis, and discuss the implications of their proposed Power Threat Meaning Framework as an alternative to psychiatric diagnosis.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
A Flaw in the Great Diamond of the World; Presented by Louis Sass
Louis Sass examines the enigmatic nature of human subjectivity and its history from the European Renaissance, the status of psychology and related fields in conceptualising human existence, and whether we as humans have lost the ability to see ourselves in great works of art.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Against Speaking Up; Presented by Havi Carel and Dan Degerman
Is it right to assume that speaking our minds is good and keeping silent may be a sign of oppression? Havi Carel and Dan Degerman present this lecture.Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Rendering Trauma Audible with María del Rosario Acosta López
What would it mean to do justice to testimonies of traumatic experience? That is, how can experiences which do not fit the customary scripts of sense-making be heard? Whereas processes of official memorialization or legal redress often demand that victims and survivors convey their experiences through familiar modes of narration, María del Rosario Acosta López's project on “grammars of listen
Fernando Pessoa: The Poet as Philosopher with Jonardon Ganeri
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) lived what was in many ways an astonishingly modern, transcultural and translingual life. He was born in Lisbon and grew up in Anglophone Durban, acquiring a life-long love for English poetry and language. Returning to Lisbon, from where he would never again leave, he set himself the goal to travel throughout an infinitude of inner landscapes, to be an explorer of inner
A New Name for an Old Way of Thinking with Roger Ames
The classical Greeks give us a concept of substance that guarantees a permanent and unchanging subject as the substratum for the human experience. Roger Ames argues that in the Yijing or "Book of Changes" we find a stark alternative to this ontology which reflects a holistic, organic, and ecological worldview. This cosmology begins from “living” itself as the motive force behind change,
Decolonising Philosophy with Lewis Gordon
Lewis Gordon examines what it means for philosophy to be ‘colonised’ and the challenges involved in ‘decolonising’ it in philosophical and political terms. Lewis Gordon is professor of philosophy and head of the department of philosophy at the University of Connecticut. He works in a number of areas of philosophy including Africana philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political th
Culture and Value in Du Bois’ The Gift of Black Folk with Chike Jeffers
In his famous 1897 essay, “The Conservation of Races”, Du Bois advocated that African Americans hold on to their distinctiveness as members of the black race because this enables them to participate in a cosmopolitan process of cultural exchange in which different races collectively advance human civilization by means of different contributions. Philosophers like Kwame Anthony Appiah and Tommie Sh
Getting Good at Bad Emotions with Amy Olberding
Some of our emotions are bad – unpleasant to experience, reflective of dissatisfactions or even heartbreak – but nonetheless quite important to express and, more basically, to feel. Grief is like this, for example. So, too, is disappointment. Amy Olberding explores how our current social practices may fail to support expressions of disappointment and thus suppress our ability to feel it well. She
Mutual Guardianship and Hospitality with Tamara Albertini
While Heidegger and Derrida both contributed groundbreaking reflections on hospitality (and “hostipitality”), they failed to recognize that the host-guest relationship can only succeed if it is correlated with the notion of mutual guardianship. The lecture will describe historic guardian civilizations and then turn to Ricoeur’s linguistic hospitality as a possible blueprint for future cultural hos
The Ethics of Anger and Shame with Owen Flanagan
We live in an age of anger and shameless disregard for what is true and good. What can we learn from other cultures about better ways to do anger and shame? How can we develop better norms for being angry at the right things, in the right way, at the right times? How can we inculcate norms for proper shame at callous disregard for what is true and good? Flanagan argues that attention to how other
The Possibility of Global Aesthetics with Eileen John
Aesthetic theories in the Western tradition, like most philosophical theories, do not set out to have only local application, as they try to articulate generally relevant and illuminating theoretical concepts and values. But can and should philosophical aesthetics have global significance? Can aesthetic theories find fruitful general application while also respecting the locality and variability o
The First Person in Buddhism with Nilanjan Das
In classical South Asian philosophy, as in common sense, most thought that the first-person pronoun “I” stands for the self, something that persists through time, undergoes conscious thoughts and experiences, and exercises control over actions. The Buddhists accepted the “no-self” thesis: they denied that such a self is substantially real. This gave rise to a puzzle for these Buddhists. If there i
Japanese Philosophers on Plato’s Ideas with Noburu Notomi
Plato has been one of the most important philosophers in the West and is now read all over the world. He has undergone a lot of research in academia, but Noburu Notomi suspects that modern readers have missed some essential factors in analyzing Plato’s texts and thoughts. In order to correctly understand his central theory of Ideas and reconsider the potential of Plato’s philosophy in the modern w
How to Change Your Mind with Leah Kalmanson
The methods of philosophy may be associated with practices such as rational dialogue, logical analysis, argumentation, and intellectual inquiry. However, many philosophical traditions in Asia, as well as in the ancient Greek world, consider an array of embodied contemplative practices as central to the work of philosophy and as philosophical methods in themselves. Leah Kalmanson surveys a few such
Philosophical Storytelling with Helen de Cruz
Philosophers enjoy telling stories. Sometimes the stories are very short, but they can be long and detailed as well, for example in the form of utopian narratives by More, Cavendish and others. Why do philosophers invent such stories, and what do they want to accomplish with them? Helen de Cruz argues that existing accounts of thought experiments cannot easily explain the range and variety of thou
The Philosophy of Green Finance with Joanna Burch-Brown
Self-described ‘hippie eco-philosopher’ Joanna Burch-Brown takes us on a deep dive into the philosophy of green finance and a step closer to addressing climate change, by way of a lively tale of philosophy going banking. Joining the discussion is Sean Edwards, chairman of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association Annual Conference. Joanna Burch-Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at
Recommended
Messy Social Work
Africa's not for Wimps
The Psychology Perspective
Write Me Dirty with Katherine Ryan
RHISE: Real History in Simple English (A2-B1, British)
Quickly Kevin; will he score? The 90s Football Show
The Jon Richardson Show on Absolute Radio
British English Listening Practice - English Go! Podcast
BIG KICK ENERGY
Out To Lunch
A Life More Wild
Boot Boy Radio
