MyGlasgow News

• Fridays 12.10 - 1 pm
• Room 201, John McIntyre Building,
• University of Glasgow

The Centre for Open Studies is pleased to offer a series of FREE, lunchtime talks open to all. These Masterclass talks will be delivered by leading University of Glasgow researchers and teachers.

To register for any of these talks, please visit our booking website at:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/centre-for-open-studies-6759659697 or please telephone +44 (0)141 330 18601853/2772 during semester time: Mon-Fri 10.00 – 16.30 and from 10.00-19.00 from Mon-Thurs 11 August – 16 October.

Philosophy of Hallucination and Perception.  Professor Fiona Macpherson,  17 October 2014

We gain most of our beliefs by perceiving the world. But can we gain knowledge about the world if there is a possibility that we are sometimes, or always, hallucinating? Hallucination has had a central role in philosophical thought, made famous by Descartes’ evil daemon who is constantly deceiving us, and in more recent times by films like the Matrix. The traditional conception of hallucination puts pressure on the idea that perception can give us knowledge—but is it the only viable conception there is? In this talk I explore two other conceptions of hallucination recently posited by psychologists and philosophers. I consider whether they alleviate the sceptical worries that hallucination engenders. I argue that, if they do, new, distinct, and perhaps more troubling sceptical worries arise.

The politics of nationalism in Europe after the Scottish referendum. Professor Brian Girvin, 24 October 2014

Nationalism is on the rise again in Europe. Nationalist and Populist movements have tapped into widespread discontent with the political establishment and the status quo in many states. The Scottish referendum is but one expression of this wider instability (Catalonia is another). The talk will place the Scottish outcome in a broader European context and asks what the future holds not only for nationalism but for the European Union and the established state system

What can Scotland learn about autonomy from the example of Catalonia and vice versa? Professor Kathryn Crameri, 21 November 2014

Scotland and Catalonia are both nations with distinct identities and a degree of autonomy within their respective nation-states. There are many differences in their situations, including the fact that the Catalans have been denied the right to hold a binding referendum on independence. However, both Scotland and Catalonia have parliaments that take key decisions in areas that directly affect the daily lives of their residents. This talk will look at the current powers of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia to show what Scotland might learn from 34 years of Catalan autonomy, and why many Catalans actually envy the Scots!

Voluntary Euthanasia. Dr Ben Colburn, 14 November 2014

Voluntary Euthanasia Should someone be allowed to ask their friends, family or doctors to help them end their life? One strong reason to say 'yes' is because we think individuals should have autonomy: they should be allowed to make the important decisions that shape their lives as they see fit, including the important decision about how and when their life ends. I am sympathetic to that view, but here I discuss a problem for it. Most decisions to die are made under circumstances which make those decisions non-voluntary (in the sense that they are chosen because there are no acceptable alternatives). In general, we think that non-voluntary decisions are seriously problematic. So, what does that mean for the ethics of voluntary euthanasia, and whether it should be legalized?

Quantum Secrecy. Professor Stephen Barnett, 5 December 2014

We are becoming used to a world in which information is power and money has become a sequence of digits in a computer file, but in a world of hackers and fraudsters, just how safe are we? It is surprising and perhaps worrying to realise that internet purchases and international back transactions rely on the same simple (and unproven) ideas from pure mathematics. Remarkably developments in quantum physics provide the means (at least in principle) to hack into these transactions, thus rendering money valueless! But don’t worry yet, quantum theory provides its own radical solution.

The Glasgow Incunabula Project: cataloguing and promoting the University’s earliest printed books. Julie Gardham, 30 January 2015

15th century printed books ('incunabula') are fascinating on many levels – as innovative survivors of the first print revolution with its technological shift from manuscript to print, as late medieval texts available in duplicate to a commercial mass market for the first time, and as cultural artefacts containing over 500 years of ownership history. Many of them are beautifully produced, with interesting bindings and visually appealing decoration and illustrations. This talk will focus on a five year project (now nearing completion) to describe and catalogue in detail Glasgow University's outstanding collection of over 1000 incunables, in order to make them more widely known both as a research resource to students and to a more general public.

Every belief has a right to be true: Statistical evidence in epistemology and the law. Dr Martin Smith, 6 February 2015

There is something puzzling about statistical evidence. One place this comes up is in the law, where courts are reluctant to base convictions on evidence of this kind, in spite of the fact that it is quite capable of meeting the standards of proof outlined in legal doctrine. In this talk, I will offer some thoughts on how this legal problem might be solved. The problem is not, however, merely a legal one. Our unwillingness to base beliefs on statistical evidence is by no means limited to the courtroom, and is at odds with almost every general principle that philosophers have proposed as to how we ought to manage our beliefs. Thinking through these problems, I shall argue, ultimately points towards a new conception of our responsibilities as believers.

Star-dust and Scotch mist: English Metaphors across Time. Dr Wendy Anderson, 27 February 2015

The ‘Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus’ project in English Language, University of Glasgow, is in the final stages of creating a ‘Metaphor Map’ online resource which will show all of the metaphorical connections between domains of meaning that have been made by speakers and writers of English from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. This talk will introduce the project and, through a case study of the semantic area of ‘Imagination’, will illustrate the extent of metaphorical language that we use in talking about abstract concepts and changing patterns of metaphor over time.

‘Why is Suffering Valuable?’ Dr Michael Brady, 6 March 2015

Suffering is both widespread and varied: think of all of the very many kinds of pain, emotional distress, physical discomfort, and mental anguish that human beings experience. It is, moreover, widely agreed that all of these different forms of suffering are bad: we have reason to avoid, alleviate, and reduce our own suffering, and the suffering of others. However, suffering can also be valuable, and in many different ways. In this talk I’ll explain some of the ways in which suffering can be good for us, and for others.

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First published: 8 October 2014