John Gray and David Runciman on Finding Meaning in a Post-Liberal World
Recently Added • 1h 0m
John Gray is one of the UK’s most important and influential political thinkers. Sceptical of ideas about progress and the perfectibility of human nature, he is an arch critic of liberalism, believing that history moves in cycles rather than inexorably towards a better future.
On September 14 he comes to Intelligence Squared where he will be joined by David Runciman, a political scientist known for his clear analysis of modern political complexities. Together they will explore the themes of Gray’s new book The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism, which looks at the world of the 2020s through the prism of the great 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, famous for saying that without government, life would be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Traversing 20th-century Russia, India and China, and referencing thinkers from Nietzsche and Hegel to Pinker and Fukuyama, Gray will share his realist vision for what the future may hold and explain how, in a world of absurdity, meaning can be found not in grandiose ideas but in a more modest ethics.
Join us for a compelling conversation on the complex nature of governance, history and the human condition.
Up Next in Recently Added
-
Mustafa Suleyman and Zanny Minton Bed...
Mustafa Suleyman is the ultimate AI insider. As co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection AI, he is one of the pioneers of the artificial intelligence revolution, potentially the single greatest accelerant of progress in history. Investors in Inflection AI include the likes of Microsoft, Nvidia and B...
-
Israelophobia: Does Criticism of Isra...
In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion. In the twentieth century, they were hated because of their race. Today Jews are hated for something else: the nation state of Israel. That's the argument being made by journalist and editor of the Jewish Chronicle Jake Wallis Simons, who com...
-
Ravinder Bhogal and Kavita Puri on Ta...
Food has always been more than just fuel. Beyond mere nourishment, food carries deep meaning in our lives. It evokes feelings of comfort and joy and it can ignite disagreement and discord. It serves as a powerful link to culture and identity, creating a sense of belonging and community. When migr...
