Forthcoming talks are listed at this link. Below is a list of selected talks given before 2009. I have not included any of my numerous talks to sixth forms and teachers.
Appearances at book festivals
Edinburgh International Book Festival, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007
Ways with Words, Dartington, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2008
Bristol Festival of Ideas, 2006, 2007 & 2008
Glasgow Aye Write! Book Festival, 2007 & 2008
Words by the Water, Cumbria, 2006 & 2008
Bath Literature Festival 2008
Folkestone Literary Festival 2006 & 2007
Knutsford Literature Festival 2007
Countrybookshop Peak festival 2007
Swindon Festival of Literature 2007
Oxford Literary Festival, 2005 & 2006
Woodstock Celebrates Books 2005
Essex Book Festival, 2005
Cheltenham Festival of Literature, 2003
Selected talks (last update July 2008)
A journey into the English Mind
2gether08, 2 July 2008
The European Exception? The Public Intellectual in Britain
Panel with AC Grayling and Kate Soper, chaired by Melvyn Bragg
LSE/Forum for European Philosophy, 26 June 2008
Complaint
RSA, London, 19 June 2008
Does God exist?
Speaking against the motion with Nick Everitt, opposed by Alistair McGrath and Richard Swinburne
Oxford Union, 22 October 2007
Does change ever happen without violence? (Chair)
CRE’s Race Convention, 28 November 2006
The Philosophy of The Simpsons
Barton Fink: The moral vision of the Coen Brothers
Bristol Festival of Ideas 20th & 14th May 2006
Losing onself … and finding another
London Sea of Faith Network Conference, 25 March 2006
Child pornography, harm and censorship
LSE Philosophy Society, 9 March 2006
Heythrop Philosophy Society, 8 March 2006
This house believes that the philosophy of the rap artist is more important than that of the professor
Opposing the motion with Simon Blackburn and Adam Swersky, against Ashley Walters, Ty and Joey Ansah
The Cambridge Union, 26 January 2006
(We won 92-90, but 199 abstentions was a moral victory for everyone!)
Security Matters
With Hazel Blears MP, Shami Chakrabarti and Shahid Malik MP
Fabians New Year Conference, The Future of Britishness, Imperial College London, 14 January 2006
The Added Value of Human Rights – Religion and Human Rights (Chair)
Human Rights Lawyers Association, London, 9 November 2005
Public Service – Why Bother?
SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers) Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 19 October 2005
Atheism’s militant tendency
All-Ireland Humanist Summer School, Carlingford, 27 August 2005
Mother Earth (Don’t ask)
Panel discussion with countless others
Rototom European Reggae Sunsplash Festival, Osoppo, Italy, 8 July 2005
Professionalism and Values Leadership: What Roles? Which Models? Whose Morals?
Plenary talk, NUT National Education Conference, Nottingham, 3 July 2005
Speeding up or slowing down: time famine
with Jennie Bristow, David Wainwright and Simon Wessely
ICA London, 14 June 2005
Happiness
With Claudia Hammond, Tom Hodgkinson and Paul Martin
Bristol Festival of Ideas, 20 May 2005
Too much choice? panel discussion
Whose choice is it anyway? A Spiked-Online one-day conference, 11 March 2005
Philosophy panel discussion
Summit for the Future, Club of Amsterdam, 26-28 January 2005
The case for a UK civil liberties audit
Welsh Fabians Conference, Cardiff City Hall, 27 November 2004
(How) Should Managers Philosophise – and (What) Should They Be Philosophising (About)?
Practicing Philosophy of Management Conference (Plenary Address), St Ann’s College, Oxford, 9 July 2004
Reason to end the truth wars
Humanism for the 21st Century: Perspectives East and West seminar, Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, 4-June 2004