Animals ‘in the Fraternity of universal Nature’

The Romantics took great interest in science, the natural world and animals. In his utopian community the Pantisocracy (the all-governing society – where labour would be minimised and time devoted to study, liberal discussions and educating children) Samuel Taylor Coleridge said animals were to be brothers and sisters ‘in the Fraternity of universal Nature’. His poem ‘To a Young Ass’ hailed the animal he had befriended in Jesus College as ‘Brother’. Though mocked at the time for these views, animal rights and animal welfare were debated widely amongst the Romantics and remain controversial issues today, as Andrew Kelly reveals.

Photo credit: Nick Smith

Andrew Kelly 26 March 2015

Who Gets What - And Why: The Hidden World of Matchmaking and Market Design
In many parts of life – jobs, housing, medical care, education, even a date on the internet – price is not the only determinant of who gets what. So how do the other processes that influence who gets which goods, jobs, university places and partners really work? In Who Gets What, Nobel Prize-winning economist Alvin Roth uncovers the global rules of how markets allocate, how matchmaking shapes lives, where markets exist that we may not even realise, and how everything about our biggest experiences – from getting accepted at university or living where we want – can be better understood and negotiated when one understands the design of those matching markets. The distribution of rewards is often unfair, but it’s seldom as random as it seems. Roth reveals just how much of our life takes place in marketplaces, and leads us to a new understanding of who gets what and why. He sheds new light on the politics of free markets and how many things that we choose in life also must choose us.

Alvin Roth 13 July 2015

14 March 2016
Rev Dr Rowan Williams (Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge University) with a response from Rupert Gethin (Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Bristol).
 
Introduced by Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol to be followed by general Q&A.
 
Rowan Williams has long written and spoken about Christian meditation. He has also more recently written about Buddhist meditation in the context of interfaith dialogue. In this address, Rowan Williams will speak about Christian meditation and also make some comments on Eastern forms of meditation. Rupert Gethin, a scholar and practitioner of Buddhist meditation, will give a brief response to the talk. There will be time for questions from the floor. The evening promises to open up intellectual and practical questions related to meditation and the study and practice of religion.

Rev Dr Rowan Williams: theology and meditation

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Rev Dr Rowan Williams: theology and meditation

University of Bristol

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