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This year’s forum centres on the ideas of The Enlightenment in the 21st century, and features a distinguished international panel: Ayaan Hirsi Ali (US) Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, author of the bestselling memoir Infidel, Chief Justice James Spigelman of the Supreme Court of NSW, Professor Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University Kent in the UK, Dr Arthur Herman, author of The Scottish Enlightenment and Gandhi and Churchill, Dr Jonathan Le Cocq, Senior Lecturer on the History and Philosophy of Music, and of Lute Studies, at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Thinkers of The Enlightenment, between the 17th and 18th centuries, set out to understand the world and themselves through reason rather than religion. Their ideas led to massive advances in science, economics and commerce, the arts and human liberty. Names such as John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson and Voltaire still resonate today. Their ideas have made the modern world, but in 2008, politics, policymaking and pop culture seem to have long forgotten the importance of such progress and optimism.
The Enlightenment advocated reason as the primary source and basis of authority; today the 24-hour news cycle reigns supreme. Are the principles governing nature, man and society still relevant today? And why has human progress been sidelined as the solution to apocalyptic concerns about climate change, science and Islamic fundamentalism? We must again cultivate the legacies of freedom and progress that we inherited from the Age of The Enlightenment.
Speakers
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (US) Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, Somali-born women's rights advocate and author of the bestselling memoir Infidel
Chief Justice James Spigelman (Australia)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW and Lieutenant Governor of NSW
Dr Arthur Herman (USA)
Author of The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World and Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age
Professor Frank Furedi (UK)
Professor of Sociology, University of Kent, and author of Culture of Fear, Politics of Fear and Invitation to Terror
Dr Jonathan Le Cocq (NZ)
Senior Lecturer, History and Philosophy of Music, Lute, Historical Performance, and Head of Centre for Music, Theatre and Film Studies, University of Canterbury
Details
Monday 4 August, 2008
Tickets
$33 general
$27.50 CIS members
$22 concession (GST inclusive) + booking fee
This event starts at 6:00pm and concludes at 7:30pm
For booking information, [click here] to visit the Sydney Opera House website. |