HowTheLightGetsIn Comes to London September 2018

Billed as “a rare combination of fascination and fun” by The Independent in its 5 Star review, HowTheLightGetsIn, Hay 2018, has just finished a record breaking year, with a footfall of more than 30,000 that included everyone from Noam Chomsky to Hot Chip.

Now HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival is coming to London.  Taking place 22 – 23 September, HowTheLightGetsIn, London 2018 will feature over 100 events, including over 50 debates and talks and 30 bands and comedy acts.

HowTheLightGetsIn, London 2018, will see some of the world’s leading thinkers debating today’s biggest ideas, along with a unique mix of talks, music and comedy set in the spectacular grounds of Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath.

The first speakers announced for September include: psychologist and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature Steven Pinker, author of Swimming Home and Hot Milk Deborah Levy, post-colonial theorist Homi Bhabha, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali, philosopher and author Rebecca Goldstein, eminent mathematician and Hawking collaborator Roger Penrose amongst others.

Today also sees the first debates announced – covering the universe’s beginning, violence and progress, the nature of consciousness and the future of the post-truth world - all in keeping with the festival’s theme Tribal Truths and New Wisdom.

There has been a tremendous response to this year’s festival in Hay-On-Wye and  are delighted to be bringing HowTheLightGetsIn to London this September. Today’s speakers and debates are just a taste of what’s to come – there’s plenty more exciting announcements on the way.

Philosopher and founder of the IAI, (Institute of Art and Ideas) and the organisation behind HowTheLightGetsIn, Hilary Lawson, on the theme for HowTheLightGetsIn, London 2018:   “Our theme for our debates and talks programme this September (Tribal Truths and New Wisdom) examines the intellectual crisis that the Institute of Art and Ideas was founded to address - most recently described by the media as ‘post-truth’.

“Relativism long ago undermined the simple truths of modernism, with no plausible way back. Yet we cannot be content in a world of competing tribal perspectives and alterative truths, if only the loudest and most powerful win out. So a new way forward must be found – this is the New Wisdom we are seeking out.”

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: https://london.htlgi.iai.tv/

‘Back to big thinking’ – The Guardian

‘The art and soul of the party’— Harper’s Bazaar

-ENDS-

First Debates Announced:

Creation Myths and the Big Bang

The universe began with the Big Bang. Or so our children are taught. But the Big Bang theory won out over the Steady State theory 50 years ago because we discovered the universe was expanding.  Now we know we were wrong - it is accelerating away from us.  Could the theory of the Big Bang me somehow mistaken? How could there be a beginning anyway?  Is the theory of the universe’s creation a theological narrative we should seek to abandon or is it still the best account we've got?

Eminent mathematician and Hawking collaborator Roger Penrose, physicist and author of From Eternity to Here Sean Carroll and multiverse cosmologist Laura Mersini Houghton rethink the story of why the universe exists.

The Fires of Progress

Most would argue that social progress is driven by ideas and persuasion rather than force.  Yet from the French and Russian revolutions to the Suffragettes and the anti-apartheid movement, violence and civil disobedience have been essential to victory. Is it not reason, but rather struggle and conflict that are the real forces of change in the world? Can violence ever be justified as a political strategy, or is it right to think ideas alone are enough to succeed?

Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, filmmaker and author of The Clash of Fundamentalisms Tariq Ali and Kurdish Women’s movement activist Elif Sarican debate the forces of history and the fate of our future.

Matter, Mechanism and Mind

Neuroscientists believe that the mind and consciousness are no more than matter and mechanism. But, if they are right, how does consciousness arise and does this mean our sense of meaning and purpose is mistaken? Must we accept we are just machines, or is the wonder of experience something neuroscience cannot explain and requires an alternative account of who we are?

Neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland, author of Aping Mankind Ray Tallis, and German philosopher and author of I Am Not A Brain Markus Gabriel go in search of answers.

After Post Truth

In a post truth world, tribal consensus has seemingly replaced reason and evidence. But is this world of competing truths sustainable?  Don't we need an agreed framework of thought in order to avoid a deeply fragmented and confrontational society?  Can we retain reason and evidence whilst giving up on universal and objective truth?  Or must there be truth in some form after all?   

Philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein, post-colonial theorist Homi Bhabha and post-postmodern metaphysician Hilary Lawson confront the future of the post-truth world.