Forthcoming Events

Welcome to The Great Debate website. The Great Debate is the overarching title for a series of courses, day schools, public discussions and workshops on topics including Darwinism, human nature, the mind, consciousness, development, sustainability and environmental thought. The Great Debate is committed to education, discovering knowledge and developing informed opinion through discussion and research. The Great Debate is a partner in the RCE North East regional network.

The Great Debate is organised by director and chair Caspar Hewett, co-director and treasurer Dave O'Toole and the team: Jon Pugh, Oliver Moss, Mo Lovatt and Jon Bryan. By the end of our tenth anniversary (2008) we had organised nearly fifty events attracting a wide audience drawn from the general public of ages 15 to 80 years old. We also run a schools programme that includes public discussions, debating workshops in schools and thegreatnortherndebate RCE project.

The Great Debate website includes listings of events, articles, reviews and useful links to other sites. We hope that you will find our website to be a useful resource.

news

The Great Debate is very pleased to announce that thegreatnortherndebate has been recognised by the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies as a Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development project. Thanks to everyone who has been involved in our Development, Sustainability and Environment series over the last five years for helping to make this happen. Click here for further details.

New on The Great Debate website

The Great Human Nature Debate
Video of debate between Rita Carter, Caspar Hewett and Thomas Pink held as part of The Great Debate: Agents of Change? Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature. October 2008

What can science tell us about human nature?
Video of debate between Bruce Charlton and Igor Aleksander held as part of The Great Debate: Agents of Change? Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature. October 2008

What is radical politics today?
Video of Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens in conversation with Jonathan Pugh and an audience on 5^th December 2008. Click here.

The Great Debate: Development, Sustainability and Environment

Edited videos of two debates held in March 2008 as part of the day workshop on Developing World Challenges. Simply click on the images.

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Previous contributors to The Great Debate have included Susan Blackmore, Christopher Badcock, Rita Carter, Frank Furedi, Anthony Giddens, David Glass, Will Hutton, Sir Bernard Ingham, Kenan Malik, Matt Ridley and Raymond Tallis.

Previous events have been organised in association with RCE North East, Discovery Museum, Newcastle's Centre for Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, Newcastle University, the Institute of Ideas and RSA.

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