Barnes Philosophy Club

06/09/2026

Did Descartes mess up Philosophy and Science? Paul Johnston will try to show how Descartes’ attempt to free science from theology created a set of confusions about the mind and about consciousness that all of us remain bogged down in, especially modern neuroscientists and contemporary luminaries on the philosophy of the mind - but all of us insofar as we agree with them that our lives are essentially a series of conscious experiences.

Join us at 7:30pm on Tue 22nd September 2026 at the OSO Arts Centre, SW13 0LF.

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Paul will try to show how Descartes’ attempt to free science from theology created a set of…

07/06/2026

Join us for a discussion about fairness and obligations from past generations to ourselves, and from ourselves to future generations.

Tue 23rd June 2026 | What do we owe the future? Posterity and the “Me Generation” with Professor Jo Wolff, OSO Arts Centre, Sw13.

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.Speaker Professor JonathanWolffWhatduties dowehavetofuture generations?It is often assumed that…

26/04/2026

Could we cheat death by becoming fully digital? The metaphysics of uploading ourselves.

Some people believe that future technology will enable us to upload ourselves into a computer and live in electronic form. We won't need food or housing or furniture, and we will be immune to ageing and the usual causes of death. But is this really a coherent scenario? No one would suppose that future technology will enable us to convert bricks or trees into electronic code by uploading them. Is it any more possible to upload a human being?

Tuesday 26 May 2026, 7:30pm-9:00pm at the OSO
Speaker Prof. Eric Olson
https://osoarts.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173672142
Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy
Run Time 90 minutes (including Q&A and discussion)
26 May 2026

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.Speaker    Eric OlsonSome people believe that future technology will enable us to upload ourselves…

06/04/2026

Can AIs be genuine epistemic agents? Can they know things? Do they base their outputs on evidence? Are they genuine inquirers? Are their outputs informative speech acts, or rather meaningless strings of symbols?

In this talk Mona will defend optimism about artificial epistemic agency and argue that epistemic agency emerges on the spectrum of functional normativity, and that we have overwhelming evidence to believe (some) Large Language Models instantiate rationality, justification, norm-governed inquiry, and informative speech.

Mona Simion is Professor of Philosophy and Michael Cohen Fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford. Her work spans epistemology, philosophy of language, moral and political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of AI, and she leads major international projects on knowledge, evidence, and social epistemology.

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.Speaker - Mona SimionCan AIs be genuine epistemic agents? Can they know things? Do they base…

29/03/2026

Can AIs actually know things? Are they rational agents that tell us things, rather than reproducing character strings they don’t understand? Join us with Prof Mona Simion of Oxford University on 21 April in SW13.

https://osoarts.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173672122

24/03/2026

10/03/2026

Join us on 24 March to discuss T.E. Hulme, a philosopher and poet who was called “The First Conservative of the 20th Century”, and described by T.S. Eliot as “classical, reactionary, and revolutionary”. Prof. Derek Matravers will talk about Hulme’s view of human nature as deeply flawed, and therefore in need of external discipline, order and absolute values.
Book to join us at 7:30pm as the OSO Arts Centre, SW13

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Professor Matravers will be discussing the philosophy of T.E. Hulme, a philosopher and poet who…

15/02/2026

https://osoarts.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173669821?utm_source=OSO+Arts+Centre+Friends&utm_campaign=3ee31d2523-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_06_03_03_02_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-189afcb0df-176532943&mc_cid=3ee31d2523&mc_eid=f24d1dbda9

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Kathryn Murphy will be discussing themes from her forthcoming book, The Tottering Universal:…

31/01/2026

Join us on Tuesday Feb 24th to talk with Dr Kathryn Murphy about thinking in the seventeenth century - she'll talk about how Francis Bacon, John Milton and others responded to the "teeming, various, incorrigibly plural world".
https://osoarts.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173669821