How to make a better world: A. C. Grayling
Anything that can be done, will be done if it brings profit or advantage to whoever can see that it’s done.
Democracies have a problem, particularly our democracy – we just don't think about the kind of externalities that we are imposing on our own population. Certainly in relation to climate, I think we are not thinking clearly enough and thoughtfully enough about the externalities that we are imposing on other populations.
It’s easy to feel a sense of powerlessness where every morning we’re greeted with news of climate catastrophes, grave social injustice and senseless violence. So how can we muster the courage to forge a new path and turn things around? Is it still possible to make the world a better place?
Hear from philosopher A. C. Grayling as he first shares the pragmatic solutions and answers to the big challenges that are troubling us today – climate change, technology and justice – followed by an in-conversation with UNSW’s Jeremy Moss. Together they will span everything from the small personal changes we can make in our lives to transform the world for good to how we can work together as a community to decarbonise the economy.
This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas as part of UNSW Alumni’s Learn to Lead program and supported by the Byron Writers Festival.
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A. C. Grayling
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How to make a better world panel discussion
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Jeremy Moss
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Professor Ben Newell
A. C. Grayling
A. C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Master of the New College of the Humanities, London, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. He was for a number of years a columnist on the Guardian, the Times, and Prospect magazine. He has contributed to many leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC radios 4, 3 and the World Service, for which he did the annual ‘Exchanges at the Frontier’ series; and he has often appeared on television. He has twice been a judge on the Booker Prize, in 2014 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of Humanists UK, Patron of the Defence Humanists, Honorary Associate of the Secular Society, and a Patron of Dignity in Dying.
Jeremy Moss
Jeremy Moss is professor of political philosophy at the UNSW Sydney. He is the author of several books on climate change including: Carbon Justice: the Scandal of Australia’s Biggest Contribution to Climate Change; Climate Justice Beyond the State, Climate Change and Justice. He is the recipient of the Eureka Prize for Ethics and the Australasia Association of Philosophy Media Prize.
Ben Newell
Ben Newell is Professor of Psychology at UNSW Sydney. He has published many articles and book chapters on human judgement and decision making, and has an enduring fascination with the role that the unconscious plays in our decisions. His most recent book is Open Minded: Searching for Truth about the Unconscious Mind, co-authored with Professor David Shanks. It is a provocative look at the unconscious mind that challenges contemporary perceptions and exposes the indefensible science that fostered them.
Ann Mossop | Chairperson
Ann Mossop is the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival, and was previously the Director of the Centre for Ideas at UNSW Sydney. She also held the position of as Head of Talks and Ideas at the Sydney Opera House from 2010–2017. She established the Opera House’s extensive talks and ideas program and lead key projects like the Festival of Dangerous Ideas and All About Women. Throughout her career she has been involved with important initiatives to bring the work of writers and thinkers to broader audiences, from the pioneering series Writers in the Park to the re-establishment of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
