The Strange Friendship of Pauli and Jung: When Physics Met Psychology

Wednesday 7 October, 6.30-8.00pm
 Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, LSE

Arthur I. Miller, Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University College London

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Arthur I. Miller is Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at University College London. He is fascinated by the nature of creative thinking and, in particular, in creativity in art (on the one hand) and science (on the other). What are the similarities, what are the differences? He is the author of Einstein, Picasso, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and Empire of the Stars, which was short listed for the 2006 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung was published in April 2009

At a key time in his scientific development, Pauli was undergoing analysis by Jung. What can we learn about Pauli and his scientific discoveries from Jung’s analysis of his dreams? A very different Pauli emerges, one at odds with esteemed colleagues such as Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Thursday 26 November, 6.30-8.00pm
 Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House, LSE

Alain de Botton, Philosopher, Author and Entrepreneur

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Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as a 'philosophy of everyday life'. He’s written on love, travel, architecture and literature. His books have been bestsellers in 30 countries. He also started The School of Life  www.theschooloflife.com  and Living Architecture www.living-architecture.co.uk. Alain started writing at a young age. His first book, Essays in Love [titled On Love in the US], was published when he was twenty-three.

We spend much of our lives at work – but surprisingly little gets written about what makes work both one of the most exciting and most painful of all our activities. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (Hamish Hamilton, 2009) is an exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, evoking what other people get up to all day – and night – to make the frenzied contemporary world function. With a philosophical eye and his characteristic combination of wit and wisdom, Alain leads us on a journey around a deliberately eclectic range of occupations, from rocket science to biscuit manufacture, accountancy to art – in search of what make jobs either fulfilling or soul-destroying. The talk amounts to a celebration and investigation of an activity as central to a good life as love – but which we often find remarkably hard to reflect on properly. As Alain points out, most of us are still working at jobs chosen for us by our sixteen-year-old selves. Here is the perfect guide to the vicious anxieties and enticing hopes thrown up by our journey through the working world.

Kant’s Two Cosmopolitanisms and Freedom of Speech

Wednesday 2 December, 12.30-2.00pm
 Room NAB1.07, New Academic Building, Lincoln's Inn Fields, LSE

Peter Niesen, Professor of Political Theory and History of Ideas, Institute for Politics, Technische Universität Darmstadt

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Peter Niesen is Professor of Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Institute for Politics in the Technische Universität Darmstadt. He has worked on political liberty in contemporary debates and in enlightenment thought (Kant, Bentham). He is a member of the Frankfurt-based research cluster on the Formation of Normative Orders.

Immanuel Kant’s work on freedom of speech is not among the best-known parts of his philosophy, but has much to offer today’s discussions. Among his various arguments, two seem based on a cosmopolitan conception of free expression. Kant argues that the public use of reason should be free among cosmopolitan citizens, and that people have cosmopolitan rights to make communicative claims on others. Yet it is unclear what the relation between these two arguments is, and how they can contribute to today’s debates on the freedom of border-crossing communication.