We are pleased to announce that the King’s History of Philosophy Seminars (KHOPS) are about to restart. 

We have two invited talks scheduled for this term:

25 January – Sarah Patterson (BBK) on Anne Conway

22 March – Thomas Uebel (Manchester) TBD Both meetings will take place on Wednesday evenings from 17:30 to 19:00, in the King’s Building, room K.1.27. All are welcome!

If you would like to stay informed about our events, you can head over to the website and sign up to themailing list.

Wednesday 29 March, 6-8pm

Venue: KCL Strand Campus, Bush House 8th Floor (North)

30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG

“Trolleys and Drones”

Speaker: Christopher Kutz

C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Berkeley

Abstract: Trolley Problem ethics is not merely empty but pernicious: it founds a radically individualist, acontextual, and libertarian politics that has provided intellectual support for modern forms of remote warfare, with their attendant civilian casualties. Trolley Problem ethics made way for a strand of revisionist thinking about the ethics of war that normalizes and moralizes the killing of civilians.

The lecture will be chaired by Professor Marion Thain, Executive Dean of Arts and Humanities at King’s College London.

A reception will follow at Bush House, 8th Floor (South), as well as the announcement of the winners of the Estella Newsome Memorial Prize essay competition (sponsored by the Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).

All are welcome! Booking required.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-peace-lecture-tickets-522509569187

The Peace Lectures are due to Alan Lacey, a life-long pacifist who taught philosophy at King’s College London for some fifteen years, and who left a generous bequest to fund a lecture series promoting peace. The series is organised by the KCL Philosophy Department.

Check out the latest from the Agora, “What’s the use of hope?” by Keiran Setiya!

Keiran Setiya teaches philosophy at MIT, working mainly in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. He is the author of  Life is Hard, Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, Practical Knowledge, Reasons without Rationalism, and Knowing Right From Wrong.

This article is part of the Agora series, a collaboration between the New Statesman and Aaron James Wendland. Wendland is Vision Fellow in Public Philosophy at King’s College, London and a Senior Research Fellow at Massey College, Toronto. He tweets @aj_wendland.

A new Latin Philosophy Reading Group will be starting in the Department next week.

When: Every Monday, 14.00–15.00 (starting January 16th)

Where: Room 508, Philosophy Building

What: The group will be reading Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, from the very beginning, translating it from the Latin. The meetings will comprise the translation as well as some philosophical discussion of the text. While some knowledge of Latin is helpful, all levels are welcome.

Anyone interested should get in touch with Zita Toth or Sol Tor to be sent the text and the schedule – but anyone is free just to show up!