It’s been a busy term for our Eunoia Society, with some fantastic, informative lectures from outside speakers.
Thank you to students Ray C and Venetia M for the following report:’
In October, we welcomed Dr Ann Giletti (University of Oxford) to give a lecture entitled: ‘Double Truth: Do you think it is possible for two conflicting ideas to be true’. Dr Ann Giletti is a historian and theologian who is particularly interested in the Middle Ages. In the lecture she briefly introduced the conflict between Christianity and science in the Middle Ages, and she made us think about the possibility of holding double truth with the particular question: can evolution and Adam and Eve both be true? We learned about the concepts of knowledge and belief, and were given a fascinating insight into how medieval thinkers grappled with two different world-perspectives at the same time. Dr Giletti fully involved her audience in an interactive and very engaging presentation.
Dr Douglas Bamford (University of Oxford) visited us in November to speak on ‘The Game of Your Life’. He spoke about his idea of creating a game where you score your life and you are the one who chooses how it is scored based on what you see as intrinsically valuable. In trying to find what is intrinsically valuable, he also explained to us some key philosophical ideas such as the paradox of happiness, where the more you question your happiness, the more you find that you are not happy. Dr Bamford urged us to see the inescapability and value of philosophy both in the game and in normal life. Using philosophy can help us to avoid making bad decisions in our lives and can help us to have things to call on when making decisions so that we can work out more effectively what really matters.