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The Crypt, St Martin-in-the-Fields

Rethinking quantum cosmology, the nature of time and the origins of reality

Is this all there is? Humans have been asking ourselves that question since we first gazed up at the stars. Thousands of years later, some of the most baffling mysteries in cosmology point to a surprisingly complex answer: from dark energy to the nature of time, our Universe seems to be offering hints that alternate layers of reality might exist beyond the reach of our current physics, and perhaps even outside the Universe itself. At this event, philosopher of physics Karim Thébault will discuss radical, playful yet plausible alternatives to consensus views about the nature of the cosmos, and how quantum mechanics might play out on scales of trillions of light years of distance and billions of years of human time. Join us for an evening that traverses time and space, from interrogating Einstein to addressing the troubled entanglement of physics and philosophy throughout history.

The open Universe

Brunswick Ballroom

Delve into ritual, play and the imagination with archaeologist Michelle Langley, professor of education Marilyn Fleer and musician Genevieve Lacey

Other animals play, but there is something unique about the human capacity to play and imagine throughout our lives. Many experts believe that our long childhoods of learning and exploration were pivotal in human evolution. At this event we’ll be exploring the traces of childhood, play and ritual in the ancient archaeological record; we’ll inquire whether the capacity to imagine and invent is rooted in childhood games; and we’ll ask how we might foster this deep human need in a world that sometimes seems unfriendly to open-ended and joyful exploration.

Does play make us human?

On the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt in the 21st century, featuring Lyndsey Stonebridge and Syrian musician Lynn Adib

Arendt’s experience of flight and exile from fractured wartime Europe shaped the philosopher’s distinctive political thought. Today, once again, the condition of refugees and displaced persons distils certain truths about our troubled historical moment. In this wide-ranging and polyphonic conversation and performance, we will enquire into the distinction between strength and violence; when utopian thought risks shading into extremism; the inhumanity that nation-states inflict upon non-citizens; and how the redemptive power of the arts opens up new possibilities for political action.

Can we imagine power without violence?

Delve into themes of love, honour, exile and magic with writer and scholar Kári Gíslason, actor Eloïse Mignon, and musicians Erkki Veltheim and Aviva Endean

The Icelandic sagas date back a thousand years: vivid stories that are redolent of ancient pagan tales yet also strangely modern. Told in spare, swift and poetic prose, the sagas capture a society in negotiation with itself, filled with strong-minded characters who had fled kingly Europe for a new society on the fringes of habitable land. What can we learn from their deep-thinking storytelling today?

Sagas of the Icelanders

Student

Joe's Pub, The Public Theater

Encounter this liberatory emerging philosophical field with philosopher Lewis Gordon and musician Moor Mother

The story most often told about modernity is of grand achievement, the triumphant march of reason and moral persuasion from Descartes to today. But that story is wrong because it obscures a grim truth: that modernity was built upon the degradation and colonization of Black people. Africana philosophy celebrates the achievements of thinkers of the African diaspora whose explorations of freedom, justification and redemption challenge the achievements of modernity – and offer powerful lessons for the future. Students use code SCSTUDENT for $16 tickets

Africana philosophy

Find out what drives people to the depths and edges of the known world, and how they survive it, with psychologist Emma Barrett and drummer/composer Charles Hayward

Throughout history, adventurers and explorers have shown that, in the pursuit of their dreams, humans are capable of astonishing levels of resilience and ingenuity. What kinds of people thrive in hostile environments? What drives them to willingly endure intense challenges and privations, including extreme temperatures, dizzying heights, hunger and loneliness? Join us this evening to explore what we might learn from success and failure at the edge, to help us better cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life.

Survival at the edge

An evening of metaphysical exploration with philosopher Kristie Miller, musician James Rushford and dancer/choreographer Lilian Steiner

Time is pervasive, but does it really exist? What’s more, our own human experience of time doesn’t seem to match up with physics. How do we reconcile the two? Does time flow? Or is this just an illusion? And how do we think about ourselves as time-dwelling beings – can we be kinder to our future selves and regret less about our past? This evening’s conversation and performance allow us to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar, as we delve into the mysteries of time.

The meaning of time

The Georgia Room

An evening exploring the romantic and carnal side of life through a trio of European existentialists, guided by the philosopher Skye Cleary and the musician Darian Donovan Thomas

Love has long been defined as the moment when two severed souls reunite in sexual and psychological bliss. But the idea of soulmates is by no means the final word. Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir wrote about how love and sex reveal who we really are and who we want to be. Join us this evening to explore the nature of love, to what extent we can choose to love, and whether true harmony of bodies and souls is possible – or even desirable.

Love, sex and existentialism

Full

Philosopher Margaret Cameron with jazz great Paul Grabowsky, explore ancient ideas and contemporary ethics

Ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle had a huge influence on the history of ideas, but can we treat them as wise guides to living well today? Could their conversations about ethics and the good life help us navigate our complex world? Or are these essentially intellectual experiments, too hard to put into practice in everyday life? Drawing on a number of the ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, we explore contemporary dilemmas, accompanied by the insights and music of jazz great Paul Grabowsky.

Is philosophy a way of life?

Science writer and artist Margaret Wertheim, along with jazz pianist Dan Tepfer, explore the nature of reality

The dream of a theory of everything has captivated physicists, who imagine a set of mathematical equations that would describe the universal whole from the microscopic to the cosmological scale. But how did Western scientific thinkers come to believe mathematics was the ‘language of reality’? Were there alternative paths science could have taken? And where is this mathematical journey leading us now in the age of ‘big data’?

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Live Philosophy

Collingwood project

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A curated set of reading and video resources for those who want to delve deeper into each event.

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