Reading Humanists

When we watch a movie, are we in its world? Do we observe a movie’s characters, or experience things at their level? In this talk, Adam O’Brien (Associate Professor of Film) will reflect on cinema’s ‘special powers’ of point of view, and consider how this art form - unlike others - lets us see people and see with people at the same time.

Drawing on a range of examples from classic and contemporary films, O’Brien argues that cinema’s insights about human experience are, more often than not, a matter of point of view.

Everyone one is welcome to join - we are a friendly group. There will be coffee and tea available.

Dine and Discuss in a friendly environment!

Join us for our popular Lunchtime Discussion Group for an afternoon of friendly conversation whilst dining at a local restaurant.

This month we'll be discussing Is Meritocracy Fair?

The question Is meritocracy fair? is raised by Professor Richard Plomin in his book Blueprint: The DNA Revolution. Professor Plomin is one of the world’s leading genetic behaviouralists and his book summarises the lessons of half a century of research into “nature v nurture” His conclusion is that it is both, with nature playing around 50% and nurture the remainder.

However, a startling discovery is that the effects of nurture seem to be stochastic, there is no systematic cause, they seem due to chance. What this means is that the traits which distinguish and affect our life chances (such as intelligence) are largely a matter of luck. It is like a dice roll, some get double six and live long, happy and wealthy lives. Others double one and their lives are short and can be miserable.

Professor Plomin points out that this means that a meritocratic society rewards those who are lucky and punishes those who are not. He asks the question as to whether this is truly fair and whether society should, instead, seek to give more equal value to all, regardless of what their DNA and luck in life enables them to be. This is a profound question and one very appropriate for our times given the rapid changes we are experiencing in terms of society and demographics.

About Discussion Group

Our discussions can cover any socially relevant issue. Participants decide on the topics for discussion based on their interests. From evolution to anthropology, from economics to psychology, from the environment to . . . anything that catches your interest.

If you want to contribute, we’d ask you to prepare something that has fired up your imagination. Contributions might be sharing ideas from a book or article you’ve read, or simply an idea that you’ve researched. Individuals will submit a written summary of their idea before the meal.

On the day, the group will question, discuss and assess the implications. If you want to come along to listen and comment, that’s fine too. The aim is to engage a group of like-minded people who enjoy understanding and challenging each other’s ideas.

Music is a universal feature of human experience, some form of music is found in all cultures and Darwin even speculated that language and music might have common evolutionary foundations. A frequently experienced - but little-researched - aspect of music is the "earworm", the song that becomes stuck in one's head. In this talk Philip Beaman, Professor of Experimental Psychology at Reading University will discuss how music is represented in the mind/brain, and give an historical background on documented experiences of earworms (or "stuck songs") before presenting some more recent results suggesting why earworms might happen, and what we can do about them.

Image: AI-generated image created with assistance from ChatGPT