Executive Freedom in Descartes - CANCELLED

Sir Anthony Kenny

The Inaugural Cottingham Lecture from the Department of Philosophy with guest speaker Sir Anthony Kenny, preceded by drinks reception.

Drinks Reception: 6:00pm – 6:45pm in Foyer outside Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley, Whiteknights Campus 

Inaugural Cottingham Lecture: 7:00pm – 8:15pm in Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley, Whiteknights Campus 

SIR ANTHONY KENNY was born in Liverpool in 1931 and was educated at Upholland College and the Pontifical Gregorian University.  He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1955 but returned to the lay state in 1963. Since then he has lived in Oxford. From 1963 to 1989 he was at Balliol College, Oxford, first as Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, and then as Master of the College. Subsequently he became Warden of Rhodes House, President of the British Academy, and Chair of the Board of the British Library.  He is the author of some forty books on philosophy and history, including the four-volume New History of Western Philosophy published by Oxford University Press.

Sir Anthony Kenny will present a talk on Descartes’ theory of human freedom, discussing Cottingham’s idea of ‘executive freedom’ and whether it helps to render Descartes’ theory of the will coherent.