This year's lecturer is Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge Alexander Goehr. An English composer, his compositions, such as Psalm IV and The Deluge, have established him as an inspirational music creator. In his Reith Lecture series entitled 'The Survival of the Symphony', he explores what musicians have done to music. In this lecture entitled 'The Old Warhorse', Alexander Goehr traces the importance of the symphony and its apparent fall from grace in the 20th century. He argues th...
Nov 18, 1987•29 min
Serving Judge Lord McCluskey gives his sixth Reith lecture from the series entitled 'Law, Justice and Democracy'. In his sixth and final Reith Lecture entitled 'Lions under the Throne', Lord McCluskey concludes his argument for separating law and justice. He argues that the functions of making the law and the function of applying it should not be held by the same people. He suggests some swift, sure and cheap measures that he believes would create a better justice system.
Dec 10, 1986•29 min
Serving Judge Lord McCluskey gives his fifth Reith lecture from the series entitled 'Law, Justice and Democracy'. In this lecture entitled 'An Enormous Power', Lord McCluskey debates the essential constitutional difference between the British and American higher judicial systems. Debating the merits and flaws of both systems, Lord McCluskey argues against the enactment of a Bill of Rights in the United Kingdom.
Dec 03, 1986•30 min
Serving Judge Lord McCluskey gives his fourth Reith lecture from his series entitled 'Law, Justice and Democracy'. In this lecture, Lord McCluskey counters Lord Denning's exhortation of 'trust the judges' and argues instead for a simplification of the law. He argues that there should be predictable outcomes because the method of adjudication ought, as far as possible, to be the relatively mechanical process. It should apply a precise set of unambiguous rules to the facts and not take a wide-rang...
Nov 26, 1986•29 min
Serving Judge Lord McCluskey gives his third Reith lecture from the series entitled 'Law, Justice and Democracy'. In this lecture entitled 'Hard Cases and Bad Law', Lord McCluskey argues that Parliament, not the judiciary, must have ultimate responsibility for legislation. He argues that they must not abdicate the making of policy choices to "a body of elderly men".
Nov 19, 1986•29 min
Serving Judge Lord McCluskey gives his second Reith lecture from the series entitled 'Law, Justice and Democracy'. In this lecture entitled 'The Clanking of Medieval Chains', Lord McCluskey examines how judges think. He asks how with precisely the same starting materials in terms of fact and legal tradition, judges can come to such diametrically opposite conclusions.
Nov 12, 1986•29 min
Serving Judge Lord McCluskey gives his first Reith lecture from his series entitled 'Law, Justice and Democracy'. In his lecture entitled 'The Chill and Distant Heights', Lord McCluskey discusses whether it is right for judges to have sole responsibility for sentencing criminals. He argues that if judges were relieved of the responsibility for so-called sentencing policy, it could help them to play the role of administering a system of law.
Nov 05, 1986•30 min
David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the sixth and final lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'. In this lecture entitled 'Markets, States and Economics', David Henderson puts forward the uses of economics and concludes his comparison between orthodox economic and Do-It-Yourself Economics. Setting these arguments in a wider ...
Dec 11, 1985•30 min
David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the fifth lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'. In this lecture entitled 'DIYE plus the Lobbies: Counting the Cost', David Henderson puts forward two questions. The first: why do some professional economic ideas have so little influence? And secondly he questions: how much does this lac...
Dec 04, 1985•30 min
David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the fourth lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'. In this lecture entitled 'Orthodox Economists Versus the People', David Henderson further explores the contrasts between Do-It-Yourself Economics and Orthodox Economics. All over the world, trade intervention has been used, and continues ...
Nov 27, 1985•29 min
David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the third lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'. In this lecture entitled 'Needs, Centralism & Autarchy', David Henderson highlights the contrast between Do-It-Yourself Economics (DIYE) and Orthodox Economics. He reflects on how economic policies might affect security, trade, markets...
Nov 20, 1985•30 min
David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the second lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'. In this lecture entitled 'Soap Opera in High Places', David Henderson considers the leading elements of Do-It-Yourself Economics (DIYE) and explores how it differs from ideas that are widely accepted by trained economists. He asks, what a...
Nov 15, 1985•30 min
David Henderson, Head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the first of five lectures in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'. In this lecture entitled 'The Power of Do-It-Yourself Economics', David Henderson explores the phenomenon of economic DIY. Explained as the unprofessional or layman's view of finances, he describes how it can contradict with the p...
Nov 06, 1985•29 min
In the final lecture of his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, examines the evidence for and against the existence of free will. In this lecture entitled 'The Freedom of the Will' Professor Searle attempts to explain why human beings stubbornly believe in their own freedom of action and debates the philosophy of free will. He concludes his Reith Lectures trying to characterise the relationship between the perceptions of self ...
Dec 12, 1984•30 min
In his fifth Reith Lecture from his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, considers the discipline of human behavioural science. In this lecture entitled 'A Changing Reality', Professor Searle explores the limits to the insights that we can expect from a 'science' of human behaviour. He questions the success of the natural sciences. Why have they not given us more information about human behaviour? What makes the subje...
Dec 05, 1984•30 min
In his fourth Reith Lecture from his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, analyses the structure of human actions. In this lecture entitled 'Walk to Patagonia', Professor Searle draws together the mental and physical aspects to show how our mental activities can produce our behaviour. Can our ability to choose our movements be what separates us from machines? Professor Searle seeks to show how the structure of an acti...
Nov 28, 1984•30 min
In the third Reith Lecture from his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, explores the discipline of cognitive science. In this lecture entitled 'Grandmother Knew Best', Professor John Searle investigates how and why scientists are developing the field of cognitive science. Exploring how the human brain processes information in order to do the action of thinking, John Searle links back to his previous lectures to debat...
Nov 21, 1984•30 min
In the second Reith Lecture of his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, considers artificial intelligence. He debates whether scientists could create a digital computer which has its own thoughts. In this lecture entitled 'Beer Cans and Meat Machines', Professor Searle compares the relationship of the mind and the brain to that of computer programme software to computer hardware. But can a man-made machine ever think ...
Nov 14, 1984•30 min
In the first Reith Lecture of his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, examines the so-called 'mind body problem'. Searle uses this paradox of the conscious mind verses the scientific brain to explore our understanding of the world. In this lecture entitled 'A Froth on Reality', Professor Searle considers how humans think of themselves as cognisant, free, rational beings but science tells us we are a chance occurrence...
Nov 07, 1984•30 min
Former Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury, Sir Douglas Wass explores the concept of authority in his series 'Government and the Governed'. In his final lecture entitled 'Participation - the Sole Bond', Sir Douglas Wass concludes his discussion about responsive and effective governments with a suggestion for a single, permanent and more autonomous Royal Commission. He argues that this would be one way to promote a more open, participatory democracy.
Dec 14, 1983•29 min
Former Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury, Sir Douglas Wass explores the concept of authority in his series 'Government and the Governed'. In his fifth Lecture entitled 'Opening Up Government', Sir Douglas Wass discusses the need for, and the problems contingent on, greater public access to information affecting government decisions. He asks why there is a gap between the public and its representatives and questions the differences in perception of where public interest lies.
Dec 07, 1983•30 min
Former Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury, Sir Douglas Wass explores the concept of authority in his series 'Government and the Governed'. In his fourth Reith Lecture entitled 'Critical Opposition - Part of the Policy', Sir Douglas Wass asks how effective Parliament is at exercising today the functions of supervision and control which the 17th-century reformers allotted to it.
Nov 30, 1983•29 min
Former Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury, Sir Douglas Wass explores the concept of authority in his series 'Government and the Governed'. In his third Reith Lecture entitled 'The Privileged Adviser', Sir Douglas Wass explores the role of British Civil Servants. By tradition they should be neutral in their political philosophy, offer impartial advice to their political chiefs and pursue policies with energy, even when they disagree with them. In reality their definition is not so clear-cut; Mini...
Nov 23, 1983•29 min
In his second Reith Lecture entitled 'Cabinet: Directorate or Directory?', Sir Douglas Wass dissects the composition of the British Parliamentary Cabinet to answer the questions; how well does it do its job? And could it be more effective? Sir Wass analyses that the British Cabinet is filled with high ranking parliamentary ministers who very rarely function as a collective group. He claims this is because each have their own proposals that they wish to promote and so they work as a group of indi...
Nov 16, 1983•30 min
Former Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury, Sir Douglas Wass explores the concept of authority in his series 'Government and the Governed'. In his first Reith Lecture entitled 'United Thoughts and Counsels', Sir Douglas Wass discusses what we mean by 'government'. Are we referring to the system, to the component parts of the political and administrative machinery? Or do we mean the policies which governments try to follow? He questions whether it is right to equate good government with prosperity...
Nov 09, 1983•30 min
Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue gives the sixth Reith lecture in his series entitled 'The Mystery of Art'. The current Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University explores societies' need to over analyse art. In this lecture entitled 'A Talent for Conviction', Denis Donoghue debates how society can increase subjectivity into art without destroying its mystery. He blames critics and their desire to explain every structure of society for devastating the ambigu...
Dec 15, 1982•29 min
Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue gives his fifth Reith lecture in his series entitled 'The Mystery of Art'. The current Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University explores the presence and charisma of art. In this lecture entitled 'The Anxious Object', Denis Donoghue argues that once critics are gone and titles are destroyed, art is left in its natural state. This intrinsic force and presence of art is the reason why society should give up all interpretation...
Dec 08, 1982•29 min
Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue gives the fourth Reith lecture in his series entitled 'The Mystery of Art'. The current Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University explores how critics influence perception of art. In this lecture entitled 'A Cherishing Bureaucracy', Denis Donoghue identifies how the state has created a pluralist and populist approach to art. He believes that every piece of art can be enjoyed because they are sanctioned by the state. Art has ...
Dec 01, 1982•30 min
Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue gives the third Reith lecture in his series entitled 'The Mystery of Art'. The current Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University explores how critics influence perception of art. In this lecture entitled 'The Parade of Ideas', Dennis Donoghue examines the confusing discourse surrounding art by explaining it from a critic's perspective. He explores the politics of pluralism and the sociology of the zeitgeist and calls for art...
Nov 24, 1982•29 min
Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue gives the second Reith lecture from his series entitled 'The Mystery of Art'. The current Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University explores society's comprehension of art. In this lecture titled 'The Domestication of Outrage', Denis Donoghue assesses how casual materials are transformed into pieces of art and how society evaluates the finished pieces. Donoghue argues that the greatness of art lies in this theological space....
Nov 17, 1982•30 min
