Talks & Lectures

Sunday Lecture - The History and Future of Bioethics

Sun 25 Nov 2012, 11.00

Since the late 1960s a new field of inquiry has grown up, bioethics, which examines the ethical, social, legal and policy issues arising in the life sciences and medicine. While several of the topics which are central to bioethics have a long history (notably abortion, euthanasia, and the ethical nature of the doctor-patient relationship), bioethics covers a much broader range of issues. From genetic testing to allocation of high-cost medical treatments, bioethics seeks to analyse problems systematically drawing on methods from philosophy, law, the social sciences – and sometimes theology.  One of the most challenging issues for contemporary bioethics is the role of religion in public life. Should bioethics be secular, either in a weak sense (neutral between the claims of different religions) or in a strong sense (substantively atheist or agnostic)? Are claims about the sanctity of life, for instance, only intelligible in religious terms? In this lecture, I will introduce the field of bioethics and some of its key current debates, before turning to the questions : is bioethics secular? Should it be secular? And what are the prospects for a secular bioethics?

Richard Ashcroft is Professor of Ethics at Queen Mary, University of London, he is a Deputy Editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including Bioethics, Developing World Bioethics, Biosocieties, Health Care Analysis and Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.  He is a member of the Ethics and Policy Advisory Committee of the Medical Research Council, Director of the Appointing Authority for Phase I Ethics Committees and a member of the Royal College of Physicians working party on tobacco.

Open to all. No need to book in advance.

Community

Spanish with Lingua Diversa Group

26 November 2012

Introduction to Spanish For Only £4

26 November, 19.35

Lingua Diversa Group was founded by Esther and Lucio in 2002. In this introductory lesson they offer you the chance to have a first exposure to the Spanish language and learn some basics.

Come and see for yourself how enjoyable and interesting it is to learn a foreign language with communicative and fun activities.

The next lesson will be on Monday 26 November from 19.35 to 20.35. This event is very popular so book your place in advance as there are only maximum 8 students in each group.

Bookings are taken on a first-come first-served basis.

To book your place please email Lingua Diversa Group at info@linguadiversa.co.uk

TICKETS: £4

(Please note that this event is suitable to beginner students. If you have studied Spanish before we can offer you more advanced levels. For a list of all our courses check our webpage.

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Talks & Lectures

The Roots and Fruits of Humanism – A C Grayling

Tue 27 Nov 2012, 19.00

Central London Humanist Group (CLHG) and South Place Ethical Society presents.

The Roots and Fruits of Humanism – A C Grayling

Anthony Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSL, FRSA is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London.

He has written and edited over twenty books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are The Good Book, Ideas That Matter, Liberty in the Age of Terror and To Set Prometheus Free.

For several years he wrote the Last Word column for the Guardian newspaper and now writes a column for The Times.

He is a frequent contributor to the Literary Review, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Times Literary Supplement, Index on Censorship and New Statesman, and is an equally frequent broadcaster on BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service.

He writes the Thinking Read column for the Barnes and Noble Review in New York, is the Editor of Online Review London, and a Contributing Editor of Prospect magazine.

Anthony sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and for nearly ten years was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British philosophical association, the Aristotelian Society. He is a past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concerned with China, and is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, the Patron of the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association, a patron of Dignity in Dying, and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Doors 18.30, Lecture 19.00

Suggested donation of £2

Drinks will be available from our charity wine bar.

Donations would be welcome on the night towards the cost of room and equipment hire.

All CLHG talks are open to the general public.

Please register your intention to attend on our Meetup site

Special Events

In Spite of Christianity

28 Nov 2012, 18.30

NSRN Annual Lecture

Dr Matthew Engelke, ‘In Spite of Christianity: Humanism and Its Others in Contemporary Britain’

What do we talk about when we talk about religion? What do we recognize as essential and specific to any given faith, and why? In this lecture, I address these questions by drawing on fieldwork among humanists in Britain, paying particular attention to humanism’s relation to Christianity. In one way or another, humanists often position themselves in relation to Christianity. In a basic way, this has to do with humanists’ commitment to secularism—the differentiation of church and state. In more complex ways, though, it also has to do with an effort to move “beyond” Christianity—to encourage a world in which reason takes the place of revelation—while often, at the same time, recognizing what’s worth saving and even fostering from the legacies of faith. All these various relations and perspectives suggest how we should understand social life in contemporary Britain as what it is in spite of Christianity—and not.

Doors from 18.00, lecture at 18.30pm.

Followed by a drinks reception.

This event is free but places are limited.
To register, please email Lois Lee at
l.a.lee@kent.ac.uk