Humanities at the Department for Continuing Education

Prof. Raymond Tallis deepens his argument against the idea that we are our brains. He believes there is a distinction in kind between humans and other animals. This he illustrates by appeal to the differences between the music of Schubert and the singing

Prof.Iain McGilchrist illustrates his argument by appeal to a number of paintings done by psychotic patients. He points to various commonalities between these paintings and speculates on the ways in which they support claims about the two hemispheres and

Prof. Iain McGilchrist, whilst agreeing with Tallis that we are not our brains argues that we can learn a great deal about our culture by learning more about our brain. In particular we should recognise we have two hemispheres, each with a different funct

Prof. Raymond Tallis argues that extraordinary claims have been made for neurophysiology. For example it has been said that a person is nothing but his or her brain. Professor Raymond Tallis rejects this ‘neuromania’. He shows why it is attractive, but al

Another ancient belief held that an art should be governed by rules. Another ancient belief held that an art should be governed by rules. This assumption was discredited in 1674, when Longinus' treatise On the Sublime was translated into French. Technology might be written up in a manual, Longinus explained, but not the sublime. The need to understand a fine art without rules led to the formulations of aesthetics a century later.

E.H. Gombrich famously observed that 'there really is no such thing as Art' (with a capital A). Instead he described the practice of art as 'mastery', which equates to the Quality recovered by Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974). Quality is also a better word than 'virtue' to render the aretê that preoccupied Socrates in Plato's dialogues.

A new one-day course at the Department for Continuing Education taught by Paul Heiney, writer and broadcaster, this course is intended to help people face a video camera with confidence, and communicate through the fast-growing video media. The course (details are available on the Department for Continuing Education's website) aims to help you understand the basic rules of a better video performance.

Dr Anna Beer gives an overview of the life and works of the poet John Milton.

Local history lecture, by Chris Day, giving an overview of the history of the University of Oxford. Visit http://media.conted.ox.ac.uk/lh01 to view the full presentation from Chris Day, including his slides.