Gifford Lectures (audio)

Baroness Onora O’Neill - From Toleration to Freedom of Expression

Baroness Onora O’Neill presents a special Gifford Lecture in Memory of Professor Susan Manning (1953-2013), entitled 'From Toleration to Freedom of Expression'. This lecture is part of the University's Gifford Lecture series. For more than a century, the Gifford Lectures have enabled scholars to advance theological and philosophical thought. Recorded on 28 October 2013 at the University of Edinburgh's Playfair Library Hall.

Professor Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

Professor Steven Pinker delivers the Gifford Lecture series entitled "The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity". Contrary to the popular impression view that we are living in extraordinarily violent times, rates of violence at all scales have been in decline over the course of history. This lecture explores how this decline could have happened despite the existence of a constant human nature. Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition, which has won prizes from the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the American Psychological Association, and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.Recorded on Wednesday 29 May 2013 at McEwan Hall, the University of Edinburgh.

Prof Bruno Latour - Inside the 'Planetary Boundaries': Gaia's Estate

Professor Bruno Latour delivers the Gifford Lecture series entitled "Facing Gaia. A new enquiry into Natural Religion". Lecture 6: Inside the 'Planetary Boundaries': Gaia's Estate Although the resources of "paganism", New Age cults, renewed themes of Christian incarnation, and process theology offer rich mythological insights, it is not clear whether they are at the scale and sensitivity needed to face Gaia. A search for collective rituals should begin with works of art and experiments able to explore in sufficient detail the scientific and political composition of the common world. Recorded on Thursday 28 February 2013 at St Cecilia's Hall, the University of Edinburgh.

Prof Bruno Latour - War of the Worlds: Humans against Earthbound

Professor Bruno Latour delivers the Gifford Lecture series entitled "Facing Gaia. A new enquiry into Natural Religion". Lecture 5: War of the Worlds: Humans against Earthbound In the absence of any Providence to settle matters of concern — and thus of nature, its barely disguised substitute — no peaceful resolution of Gaian conflicts can be expected. The recognition of a state of war and the designation of enmity is indispensable if a state of diplomacy is later to be reached. Under the pressure of so many apocalyptic injunctions, what is a Gaian political theology? Recorded on Tuesday 26 February 2013 at St Cecilia's Hall, the University of Edinburgh.

Prof Bruno Latour - The Anthropocene and the Destruction of the Image of the Globe

Professor Bruno Latour delivers the Gifford Lecture series entitled "Facing Gaia. A new enquiry into Natural Religion". Lecture 4: The Anthropocene and the Destruction of the Image of the Globe The paradox of what is called "globalization" is that there is no "global globe" to hold the multitude of concerns that have to be assembled to replace the "politics of nature" of former periods. What are the instruments —always local and partial— that are sensitive enough to Gaia's components for the limited technical and emotional apparatus of assembled humans? Recorded on Monday 25 February 2013 at St Cecilia's Hall, the University of Edinburgh.