The Oxley College Centre for Ethics
The Oxley College Centre for Ethics is the home of ethical inquiry and critical thinking at Oxley.
In its inaugural year, it will be delivering an ambitious program of events for both our students and the local community in the Southern Highlands. These events will feature distinguished speakers and leaders from diverse fields, including philanthropy, higher education, non-governmental organisations and industry. You can find out more here: Oxley College Centre for Ethics – Oxley College
Our next esteemed guest is Professor AC Grayling.
Philosophy and Life
There is a question everyone has to ask and answer – in fact, has to keep on asking and keep on answering. It is ‘How should I live my life?’, meaning ‘What sort of person should I be? What values shall I live by? What shall I aim for?’ The great majority of people do not ask this question, they merely answer it unthinkingly in conventional ways.
This is the ‘Socratic Question’, challenging us to examine the philosophy of life we live by. Everyone has a philosophy of life, but most people do not know that they have one, because they imbibed it unconsciously from society, parents, schools, friends. What are the assumptions of that unconscious philosophy, and the reasons for living according to it? Do these assumptions and reasons survive scrutiny? If one really thought about one’s life and the philosophy that underlies it, what changes would one make?
In this talk, Professor Grayling traverses love, death, grief, ageing, friendship, and art in the quest to understand what matters.
“… I believe as strongly now as I ever did that Socrates’ question is the most important anyone can be asked to answer” (A.C. Grayling)
Professor A.C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Principal of Northeastern University London, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. He was for several years a columnist on the Guardian, the Times, and Prospect magazine. He has contributed to many leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC radios 4, 3 and the World Service, for which he did the annual ‘Exchanges at the Frontier’ series; and he has often appeared on television. He has twice been a judge on the Booker Prize, in 2014 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of Humanists UK, Patron of the Defence Humanists, Honorary Associate of the Secular Society, and a Patron of Dignity in Dying.
WHEN: Wednesday 22 May, 2.00 – 3.20 pm
WHERE: Oxley College, Burradoo
WHERE: Oxley College, Burradoo
COST: $15 (free admission for students)
*Please note this event is only available for Oxley College students and their parents and carers.
BOOKINGS: https://www.trybooking.com/CQSOW