Philosophers on ‘Who Are We?’: The dustiness of us
Tue 21 October 2014, (Doors: 6.30pm) 7pm - 8pm
Free, no booking required.
Numbers are limited – so do come early, buy a drink and tapas and enjoy a unique early evening philosophical conversation.
Fernandez & Wells, Courtyard, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
Leading philosophers from King’s College London discuss ‘who are we?’ in a series of informal and inclusive Salons, inviting spirited contributions from the audience (on Tuesday 21st / Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd October).
At Tuesday’s Salon, join MM McCabe for a discussion on our conceptions of ageing and dying.
Socrates’ question ‘How best to live?’ asks us to think about the value of our lives overall; and to think, then about the person who lives a life, and how they may flourish over time. The question is a good one, and invites us to think about value in an illuminating way. But how does it tackle the diminution of the powers of the person who lives the life as they age? Or the cognitive fractures in a life that age may bring? Or the declaration that someone is ‘dying’?
Professor MM McCabe
Professor McCabe was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and Newnham College Cambridge. From 1981-1990 she was Fellow in Classics at New Hall, University of Cambridge; she moved to King’s College London in October 1990. She has spent some extended periods in the USA; at Harvard, at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC, and at Princeton. From 2005-2008 she was a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow. In 2009 she was elected President of the British Philosophical Association. She is the general editor of the Cambridge University Press series Studies in the Dialogues of Plato.
Main image: Somerset House, courtesy of Somerset House Trust
