Author Archive

Why Plato Matters Now

Posted on: April 30th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

In this talk Professor Angie Hobbs explored three of the key ways (there are many more!) in which Plato’s methodology, arguments and ideas can help us articulate, think through and address contemporary challenges.

Firstly, through his selection of the dialogue form he shows us how difficult issues can be discussed in constructive ways, where the interlocutors collaborate in a search for truth; he also deliberately offers models of how not to do it — dialogues in which one of the interlocutors aims not at truth, but victory by any means — whether through bullying or verbal tricks. Plato thus offers us the tools to help bridge current political, religious and cultural divides and to spot and combat fake news and fallacies; these tools are already proving of great benefit in primary and secondary education and are being expanded: for example, Professor Angie Hobbs has recently been giving training sessions in the question-and-answer technique to the civil service.

Secondly, Professor Angie Hobbs looked at Plato’s ethics of individual and communal flourishing — ‘flourishing’ is a more objective concept than happiness — and indicate how it can assist greatly in matters of healthcare, education, the training of AI systems and urban and environmental planning; Professor Angie Hobbs briefly discussed work she has been doing with the NHS Strategy Unit in how to apply an ethics of flourishing at various points in the care pathway, such as in the prioritisation of waiting lists.

Finally, Professor Angie Hobbs outlined Plato’s brilliant analysis in the Republic of how a democracy can be subverted to tyranny by a cynical demagogue (although Plato was not a great fan of direct democracy — the only kind he knew — he nevertheless thought it greatly preferable to tyranny, of which he had had direct experience in Syracuse, at the court of Dionysius I).  This incisive analysis enables us to remain alert and spot problems in our own democracies before it is too late; in particular, we need to pay attention to Plato’s warning to watch out for the corruption of language (he highlights the abuse of  ‘freedom’) and the subversion of moral terms (such as ‘courage’), and the importance of remaining proactive agents, and not simply reacting to events.

Interview

Read our interview with Professor Angie Hobbs HERE

Airwaves to Algorithms

Posted on: April 30th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

Manchester Lit&Phil in association with Salford University presented Airwaves to Algorithms: How broadcasting and media is changing in Manchester.

Greater Manchester has long been home to some of the most famous broadcasters and programmes in the country, from the birth of commercial television at Granada Studios, to the BBC’s first regional television and radio site being based in Rusholme. Now, Salford hosts MediaCity, one of the largest hubs for the creative and broadcast industries in Europe.

So many of the most iconic and influential television and radio programmes in the world have Manchester running through their DNA – and the media and creative industries have long run through Manchester’s DNA too.

Now, though, things are changing. Viewing and listening habits have shifted, the media ecosystem has fragmented, traditional platforms have given way to, or been forced to join, an array of new and thriving digital platforms.

In a world where everyone is a content creator, and everyone is a publisher, where does this leave Manchester and its creative industries? What role does the region play in this new world order? And is traditional broadcast media as we knew it… dead?

The Panel

Ian Cameron – Manchester Lit&Phil – Chair
Seamus Simpson – Prof Media Policy, Salford University
Stuart Morgan – Founder of Audio Always
Matty White – TV & Radio Producer/Presenter

Truth in the Age of Algorithms

Posted on: April 11th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

In this talk, Dr Jennifer Cearns explored predictive AI as something surprisingly familiar: a modern form of divination.

Like older techniques for reading the future, today’s algorithms promise to help us navigate risk, uncertainty, and the desire to know what comes next. Dr Jennifer Cearns considered the cultural ideas built into AI, especially our long, messy history of defining “intelligence”, and how these assumptions shape what we treat as knowledge or truth.

Drawing on ethnographic research in the US and the UK, Dr Jennifer Cearns asked what kinds of truths AI seems to produce, and how these connect to much older ways of knowing that have shaped Western culture since the Enlightenment.

By viewing AI not just as a technical tool but as a cultural product, Dr Jennifer Cearns showed how predictive systems both challenge and reinforce existing assumptions about knowledge, revealing how our ideas of truth are becoming increasingly networked, iterative, optimised, and future oriented.

The Morphology of Modern Manchester

Posted on: April 11th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

In Britain, during the post-war period, many urban design professionals were architect-planners. A considerable proportion of these were employed by local authorities. A drive by the state to use legislation to control and influence the shape of development created a very specific set of political circumstances. Central government policy was filtered and interpreted by local government councillors and their officers and each town or city approached this in a different way. The legislation and the training enabled a very particular mode of urban design that was characterised by ambitious three-dimensional visions. Such ambition was also underpinned by non-statutory guidance that reflected the zeitgeist for vertical separation in urban settings, such as Sir Colin Buchanan’s Traffic in Towns.

In this talk, Richard Brook examined Manchester as a case, through which to explore the nested tiers and networked relationships of government, governance and the private sector in the creation of new city space. Manchester’s 1945 Plan, directed by City Engineer and Surveyor, Rowland Nicholas, was one of the most comprehensive in Britain, yet it faltered due to a lack of capital, lack of statutory powers and lack of material resources. In the 1960s, Manchester’s first Chief Planner, John Millar, revisited the urban design of the entire central area with a team of talented young planners, recruited from the region. Their work was arguably greater in its scope and definition than that produced in 1945 and shaped the city for the next 50 years. Though only partially realised, the framework for development established in the mid-1960s and approved in 1968, set the tone for almost all the changes to follow for the next 50 years.

Now, as the palimpsestic traces of earlier visions are increasingly obscured by the pace of contemporary urbanisation, using rich visual material collected over the last three decades of research, Richard positioned architectural histories alongside planning and urban histories. He showed how central government legislation was interpreted spatially by Manchester’s planners using drawings and models and how these visions continued to inform development well into the twenty-first century. In so doing, he presented an inverted archaeology of the city that traces the patterns established on paper and the long-term physical residue of these gestures.

Peter Mark Roget FRS 1779-1869

Posted on: March 27th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

Peter Mark Roget FRS 1779-1869: scientist, physician and lover of words

Roget’s Thesaurus. The man and the book are together. Every English-speaking reader or writer born before the computer age is aware of it, and most have used it.  His name has that rare distinction of being automatically associated with his famous product, and he was later joined in those rarefied circles by those such as Henry Ford, Arthur Guinness and Ladislau Biro. Despite that, very few would know anything about the man and his astonishing breadth of interests, or that for a time he lived and worked in Manchester and was part of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society.

Early Life

Peter Mark Roget was born in Soho in 1779, the son of Jean Roget, a Huguenot from Geneva who was pastor of the French Protestant Church in Soho, then the centre of a community of those displaced protestants from France and Switzerland. His mother was Catherine, née Romilly, also of Huguenot descent. The son would hardly know his father; in Peter’s infancy, Jean developed tuberculosis and returned to Geneva with his wife in search of better air. Peter was left with his grandparents. Jean did not recover and became too weak to travel; Peter was brought to join his parents in Switzerland, but Jean died there when Peter was four and his sister barely a month old.

Catherine, bereft, returned with her young children to London and lived with the Romilly family briefly. She moved her children between at least a dozen lodgings throughout the south of England and the Midlands over the following decade, failing to find somewhere where she was happy, intermittently returning to live with the Chauvet family, friends from Geneva who had set up an academy for boys in Kensington. There Peter was taught by Etienne Dumont, another friend of the family from Geneva, and he particularly encouraged Peter to study astronomy and literature. Peter was shy, anxious and introverted, and had no opportunity in his peripatetic existence to form friendships. He was also diligent, bookish and clearly of outstanding intelligence, but his mother’s constant demand to move home was destabilising. Peter retreated into his own worlds and, as introvert compulsives often do, he organised those worlds by classifying and by making lists. At the age of eight, he compiled a list of the dates on which family and acquaintances were known to have died, and he added to it constantly until his old age. In the same year he created a list of the English translations of Latin words, not ordered alphabetically but in themes; the very beginnings of a thesaurus which would not emerge complete for a further 65 years.

Training in medicine and early scientific work

Peter’s diffident personality did not immediately suggest a potential career. His mother said that “his mind will, I see, never bend to business except it was nearly connected with books”. Catherine’s brother Samuel (later Sir Samuel Romilly KC, Whig MP, abolitionist, political reformer and Solicitor-General for England and Wales) was very much a father figure, and together he and Catherine decided, perhaps surprisingly, that Peter should become a physician. He duly matriculated at the University of Edinburgh at the age of fourteen (early, but not unique) and graduated MD in 1798 at the age of nineteen, his thesis, submitted in Latin as was then required, being  “De chemicae affinitatis legibus” (“On the Laws of Chemical Affinity”).

Despite his new qualification, no attempt was yet made to practise medicine. As suggested by his thesis, he was more drawn to the sciences than to medicine itself. He had corresponded with Erasmus Darwin, and in 1798 travelled to Derby to meet him, also seeing there Humphrey Davy and Thomas Beddoes, he of the Bristol Pneumatic Institute. Roget decided to follow Beddoes to Bristol and with him and Davy, became involved in work to ascertain whether gas inhalation could cure disease. Unfortunately, their one success (the mood elevation of nitrous oxide) was not followed up, despite “laughing gas”, as Davy called it, being recognised to numb pain. Roget became somewhat disillusioned, and Dumont told him he should return to London.

Roget abroad – a lucky escape

His two years in London were unfocused and unsuccessful. He was initially introduced to Jeremy Bentham by Dumont, staying with him and assisting with Bentham’s (unsuccessful) experiments in refrigeration and sewage treatment. He undertook some further medical tuition but did not set up practice. Romilly felt that he needed to broaden his mind further, and the Peace of Amiens in 1802 once more allowed Continental travel. Romilly introduced Roget to John Leigh Philips, a wealthy mill-owner and manufacturer from Manchester, who was looking for a guardian to take his two teenage sons on a grand tour of Europe. That splendid opportunity began well, but disaster supervened in 1803 when the treaty broke down and Napoleon ordered all Englishmen on French-controlled soil to be detained. Roget and the boys were in Geneva. It took substantial negotiations (conducted, fortunately, in Roget’s fluent French), subterfuge, disguise and travel incognito for Roget to ensure that he and the boys were able to return safely to England. It was clear that John Leigh Philips must have held a profound debt of gratitude to Roget for taking care of his children. In 1804, Roget moved to Manchester and sought appointment as Honorary Physician to the Manchester Infirmary.  As a young man of 25, not from Manchester, little known to the gentry and doctors of the town and with no evidence of previous medical experience, how would he fare? He was appointed. The Chairman of the Board of Manchester Infirmary at the time – one John Leigh Philips.

Roget in Manchester

It was in Manchester that Roget began truly to concentrate and to achieve. His organisational skills rapidly became apparent. He immediately joined the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, rapidly becoming its Secretary, then Vice-President. He played an important part in the creation of the Portico Library in 1806, still in existence after 219 years. In 1805, in Manchester, he sat down and began in earnest to build on that list of words he had begun, aged eight. This can be considered the real inception of his thesaurus. In 1806 he joined his Infirmary colleague and fellow Literary & Philosophical Society member Benjamin Gibson, who had been giving series of lectures in anatomy and physiology since 1800, the first to do so publicly. These lectures continued and preceded the formation of the first anatomy school in Manchester in 1814. As such Roget (but unfortunately not Gibson) is celebrated, perhaps slightly over-enthusiastically, as the “co-founder” of Manchester’s medical school on a blue plaque attached to the Coupland Building; the site of the Manchester University Medical School in 1874. Nevertheless, his enthusiasm for teaching was evident and would continue for decades.

The blossoming of a scientific polymath

Roget was Honorary Physician at the Manchester Infirmary for over four years, but the capital beckoned again. He moved back to London. This time, with a record of prior appointment at a large infirmary, he was able to set up medical practice. He became physician to various organisations including the Northern Dispensary, the Spanish Embassy and Millbank Penitentiary, taught at two early medical schools and with a group of colleagues, was instrumental in the creation of London University. He also became almost ubiquitous in the scientific circles of London. He invented a new form of slide rule and was elected part of a Royal Commission to investigate water quality in London. He published papers or books on tuberculosis, electricity and electromagnetism, arsenic poisoning, quarantine, the organisation of ants and bees, visual illusion, and most notably, comparative physiology. He wrote many articles for Encyclopedia Britannica. The breadth of Roget’s interests, and the immense input required to maintain them, can be witnessed by the number of learned societies and organisations in London with which he was associated, most of them for many years, and several in which he held office: 1808, member of the London Medical & Chirurgical Society (becoming Secretary, then President 1829-31); 1809, Fellow of the Geological Society; 1812, Fellow of the Royal Institution (becoming Fullerian Professor of Physiology in 1833); 1814, Fellow of the Royal Society (Secretary 1827-48); 1816, Member of the Royal Society of Arts (Vice-President for over 20 years from 1832); 1822, Member of the Astronomical Society of London; 1827, Fellow of the Zoological Society of London; 1831, Member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; 1831, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (later one of four censors, overseeing qualification standards); 1837, Member of Senate, chairman of the medical faculty and examiner in comparative anatomy and physiology, University of London; 1838, Honorary Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers; 1852, Member of the Graphic Society.

The final project – Roget’s Thesaurus

 

After 1840 Roget gave up medical practice, but by no means did he retire. He needed to be occupied. He continued to lecture and to write prolifically, invented a portable chess board and published chess solutions, attempted to invent a calculating machine and a super-sensitive micro-balance. As a party trick he could from memory calculate pi to 154 places. Work towards his thesaurus (a treasury, from the Greek) began in earnest and after a decade or so of further work it was first published in 1852 as Thesaurus of English words and phrases, classified and arranged so as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in literary composition. It was an immediate sell-out and was reprinted twenty-eight times before his death. His son, lawyer, artist and author John Lewis Roget, took over and saw it into the twentieth century. That it is still regularly reprinted today, even though most now access information online, owes him a great debt of research and compilation. Peter Mark Roget now lies quietly in the Malvern hills.

Roget was a busy man. It was clear that his ever-ranging intellect required constant stimulation to provide him with the satisfaction that he apparently never quite attained. He was not a scientific genius, but he was clearly an organiser par excellence of organisations, people and words. His time seemed always to be occupied, yet he felt perhaps that he should have done more. Just before his death, he wrote words that sum up his attitude to life:

Time wastes us all, our bodies and our wits;

But we waste time – so Time and we are quits.

Lit&Phil Member – Nick Jones

William Edward Armytage Axon

Posted on: February 9th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

A life against the odds

William Edward Armytage Axon, born 13th of January 1846, died 27th of December 1913, has been described as the busiest man in Manchester. He was a key figure in Victorian Manchester‘s intellectual life and an active member of The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

His papers, held in the John Rylands library, contain over 6600 letters covering a wide variety of subjects and include correspondence from major Victorian figures such as Walter Bagehot, Millicent Garrett Fawcett and CP Scott. It is said that he wrote or contributed to over 1000 books, articles and other publications.

His life story is surprising and inspirational in the sense that he achieved so much from an extremely disadvantaged start. Those achievements were against the odds, especially in the stratified Victorian society into which he was born.

He was the illegitimate child of Edward Armytage, a clothing manufacturer and a 15-year-old servant girl, Lydia Whitehead, in his employment. The young William was sent to foster parents in Manchester where he lived in poverty and was succumbing to the childhood illnesses that killed many a child in the city at that time. Fortunately for him and Manchester, his neighbours, the Axon family, took pity on him and adopted him into their own home. Although ill health prevented him from having a formal education, he was supported to learn by the daughters of the Axon family and via Sunday school, then the public libraries.

This informal education revealed that he had the ability to absorb huge amounts of information and take an interest in vast range of topics. In this way, this illegitimate child, born into poverty, who in most circumstances at the time would probably not have made it through to adulthood, became a well-known figure in Manchester literary life.

Axon worked as a librarian for Manchester libraries and for 30 years was on the literary staff of the Manchester Guardian, the forerunner of today’s Guardian newspaper. He was a vigorous public letter writer on all sorts of local and national issues. For example, he became involved in the debates around the historical subject matter of the murals being painted for Manchester town hall by Ford Maddox Brown. He wrote books and articles on a wide range of topics including literature, dialect, folklore, and history.

One of the books that he wrote, which gives an interesting insight into his eclectic mind, is The Mechanics Friend – collection of receipts and practical suggestions, published in 1875. This is, in effect, a DIY manual covering topics as diverse as glues, lacquers and locomotives. In it, Axon, who was usually more of a literary than practical man,  collected a huge amount of information to enable the Victorian DIY enthusiast to carry out many household tasks, including cutting a hinge, and, more esoterically, making a raft to rescue someone trapped on ice!

He noted prominently on the frontispiece of the book that he was a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, which perhaps indicates a belief that membership gave him authority on practical and scientific matters. Such an endorsement of the Society confirms that it was a well-known and respected institution in Victorian Manchester.

As well as being a prolific author, Axon was a social campaigner.  He was active in campaigns to open up public libraries in Manchester and Salford on Sundays. The idea of this was to allow working class people in the cities to have access to books and knowledge on Sundays, the only day they got off work. The public libraries had educated Axon, and he was keen to extend the opportunity to others from poor backgrounds.

He was also a leading light in the vegetarian movement, holding senior positions in the Vegetarian Society. That movement can trace its roots back to Manchester and Salford and Axon was a passionate early advocate for it. Similarly, he campaigned against tobacco and alcohol, being a member of the anti-tobacco and temperance leagues. These would not necessarily have been universally popular in a Victorian city like Manchester when concern about animal welfare was less common than it is today and tobacco, like a drink, would have been seen as one of the few outlets of pleasure for working people. However, Axon was an extremely principled man and worked throughout his life for various causes without regard to popularity. In addition to writing extensively on the subject, he went as far as to open up his own vegetarian bed and breakfast accommodation in Southport.

He was self-taught in most things and his sponge-like mind allowed him to learn numerous languages which also gave him access to yet further knowledge from other countries and cultures. His involvement in African American campaigns for equality resulted in him being awarded an honorary degree by Wilberforce University in the USA.

Notwithstanding his lack of formal education, his achievements propelled him into the Manchester and national intellectual establishment. He appears in a long list of learned and other societies including Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquaries, the English Dialect Society and, of course, the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. It is remarkable that in an era when most members of these institutions would have been drawn from the educated upper and middle classes, the illegitimate boy raised in poverty was invited to join. Today the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society is open to anyone, but in Axon’s time it, like others, required members to be elected. It is a tribute to his lifelong activity and prominence in numerous fields that he was elected to so many positions.

His contributions to the intellectual life of the city were eventually recognised by the University of Manchester, which conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts shortly before his death in 1913. The University officials attended his home to confer the honour on him while he was on his sickbed, reflecting the esteem in which he was held.

Leaving aside his intellectual achievements and recognition by the establishment, it is indicative of the man that he kept in contact with his birth mother and her family, visiting them regularly. It is evident that he never forgot his roots.

For the illegitimate son of a 15-year-old servant girl, born into poverty and with no formal education, this member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society battled against the odds to achieve recognition, advocating for many causes and becoming a thought leader in the City. A Lit and Phil member to be proud of.

Lit&Phil Member – Andrew Welch

Rewilding the Lowlands: Lessons from Knepp and Beyond

Posted on: January 23rd, 2026 by Alan Wareham

How can rewilding take root in a landscape as densely populated, fragmented, and historically cultivated as lowland Britain? In this talk, Charlie Burrell explored that question through the remarkable story of the Knepp Wildland Project in West Sussex – a pioneering experiment in letting nature lead.

Knepp began over twenty years ago as a bold gamble: to step back from intensive agriculture and allow natural processes to shape the land. The result has been a flourishing mosaic of habitats – scrub, wood pasture, wetland and meadow – alive with returning species from turtle doves to purple emperors and nightingales. But Knepp is also part of a wider movement. Across Britain and Europe, rewilding is challenging assumptions about conservation, land use, and the relationship between people and nature.

Charlie used Knepp as a model to examine the spectrum of rewilding – from large-scale wilderness restoration to smaller, community-led and agricultural projects. Drawing on historical land use, he discussed how the landscapes of the past can inform the ecological and social choices of the future.

The talk also explored the powerful forces now driving the rewilding movement – from climate change and biodiversity loss to a growing recognition that nature recovery can deliver real economic and social benefits. Charlie highlighted the emerging role of philanthropy, particularly through the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, which is helping to finance major restoration projects across Europe.

Finally, he turned to one of the most exciting frontiers in this field: how Nature-Based Solutions can be valued and monetised to create sustainable funding streams for nature. Using Nattergal, a company he chairs, as a case study, Charlie showed how private capital and ecological ambition can align to restore degraded landscapes, capture carbon, and revive biodiversity.

This video recorded an inspiring evening charting the next chapter in Britain’s evolving relationship with the wild.

Interview with Professor Angie Hobbs

Posted on: January 23rd, 2026 by Alan Wareham

Q. When did philosophy first get its hooks into you, and was there a particular moment, teacher, or book that made you think, “Yes, this is for me”?

A. Yes – for Latin A Level, I studied Lucretius De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) about Epicurus’ philosophy, and I became hooked by the freewill and determinism debate (for the record, I think they are compatible).  Then, studying Classics at University, and trying to decide whether to specialise in philosophy or literature in my final year, I discovered Plato’s Symposium, a brilliant, vibrant, witty and moving dialogue in which a rich array of characters discuss the nature of erotic love, and I realised I didn’t have to choose!  Plato is a great literary artist as well as a great philosopher.

Q. Of all the thinkers you could have devoted your career to, why Plato? Was it his ideas, his style, the sheer ambition of his project, or something more personal that drew you in and kept you there?

A. Well, in addition to his literary artistry, I love the fact that he never speaks in his own voice – he never tells us exactly what he thinks but compels us to think and do philosophy for ourselves.  He draws us into the conversation.  I also completely agree with him (following his mentor, the historic Socrates) that the two fundamental ethical questions are ‘How should I live?’ and ‘what sort of person should I be?’  It is an agent-centred approach (as opposed to the act-centred approaches of the duty-based ethics of Kant or the consequences-based ethics of Bentham and Mill), and invites us to consider the whole person, living a whole life.  It invites us to consider the shape and structure and narrative of a person’s life – and of course the diverse characters in the dialogues present models to emulate and avoid.

Q. Manchester has a strong identity shaped by industry, dissent, and a certain independence of mind. Do you think Plato would have felt at home in a city like this, and if so, what do you imagine he’d be most intrigued by?

A. I think Plato would greatly have approved of Manchester’s independent and radical spirit!  He would also very much have appreciated its commitment to books, life-long learning and ideas.  And the philosopher who argued in the Republic that there should be Philosopher-Queens as well as Philosopher-Kings would I think have been very pleased by the bronze sculpture of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s Square, and the Pankhurst Meeting Circle that surrounds it.

Q. The Lit & Phil was founded on the belief that learning should be shared beyond universities and elites. How important is that ideal to you personally, and does it connect with anything in Plato’s own approach to teaching and dialogue?

A. It’s hugely important to me, and the reason why I was created the world’s first (as far as I know) Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy – for many years I have combined academic writing and teaching with public talks and media work in television, radio and podcasts and so on, and, increasingly, also with policy and consultancy work, for example with the NHS, the Health Research Authority, the Cabinet Office and other branches of the Civil Service and the World Economic Forum.  My aim is not just to expound the views of different philosophers, but to see how philosophical arguments, concepts and methods might fruitfully be applied to current challenges.   I am definitely inspired by Plato in this endeavour: he wanted his dialogues to reach as wide an audience as possible, and he set up his Academy in Athens not just to train scholars such as Aristotle, but also political leaders and policy advisers.  And in addition to lectures to these elite groups, he also gave public lectures (which, very unusually for the time, women could also attend).

Q. How important is it, given the amount of time and impact of social media and fake news, that young people learn how to think critically, and how can Philosophy help with this?

A. I think it is absolutely vital – for their individual psychological and physical wellbeing, and also for communal issues such as the protection of democracy, combatting pandemics and dealing with climate change.  Many subjects can help young people think critically and assess the veracity of verbal and visual sources and the validity of arguments, but philosophy is exceptionally well-equipped to do this.  I would love social media platforms to be subject to publishing editorial controls, but that seems a long way off, so we must give young people the tools to see through the smoke-and-mirrors of the snake oil merchants trying to deceive, divide and manipulate them.  Another point in philosophy’s favour is that  through its use of imaginary scenarios, counter-factuals and so on, it can also foster creative as well as analytic skills, creativity that the twenty-first century very clearly needs.

Q. Away from lecture theatres and libraries, what does Angie Hobbs enjoy? Are there interests, hobbies, or even guilty pleasures that might surprise people who only know you as a Plato scholar, and do any of them feed back into how you think about philosophy?

A. I have many interests!  Music, the theatre, travelling, nature in both its wild and gardened forms, walking, swimming and yoga … and many sports, especially cricket!  I love Test Match Special and one of my happiest days was being interviewed by Jonathan Agnew in View from the Boundary.  And I have an extensive knowledge of herbs (and grow a wide variety), and brew many of my own concoctions for minor ailments (though I use standard medicine too).

Q. Because you spend your life thinking carefully and philosophically, how easy do you find it to make snap decisions in everyday life, or do you find yourself mentally arguing both sides first?

A. I’m pretty decisive in terms of everyday and aesthetic decisions – I usually choose pretty quickly if I am buying clothes or selecting a paint colour.  I do try to think difficult ethical issues through carefully in a general way, in the hope that when I am called upon to make a quick decision in a crisis or personal situation, I will have done a fair bit of the thinking in advance and will be able to apply the general principles to the particular circumstances.  I find that I am very often applying an updated version of Plato’s ethics and (small ‘p’) politics of flourishing.

Thank you to Professor Angie Hobbs for taking the time to answer our questions.

Our event – Why Plato Matters Now – takes place at the RNCM in Manchester on Wednesday 11 March.

Alan Turing

Posted on: January 9th, 2026 by Alan Wareham

Alan Turing was a visionary mathematician, scientist and codebreaker whose key role in deciphering the Enigma code during World War II reached a wide audience in the acclaimed 2014 film ‘The Imitation Game’. However, his work in the post-war years in Manchester also impacted biology and chemistry, as well as laying the groundwork for the development of the modern computer and the concept of Artificial Intelligence.

Photograph portrait of Alan Turing, taken on 29 March 1951.

Early Life and Background

Born on June 23, 1912, in Maida Vale, London, Alan Turing was the second child of Julius and Ethel Turing. His father was a civil servant in the Indian Civil Service, whilst his mother came from a family of engineers. His family was upper-middle-class, and Alan and his brother both attended boarding school at Sherborne in Dorset, as their parents lived overseas. His school years had a profound and complex effect on Turing as he struggled with the school’s classical curriculum and lack of support for his passion for science and mathematics. However, he pursued advanced topics on his own and showed remarkable intellectual independence. During his time at Sherborne, he formed a close friendship with fellow student Christopher Morcom – Morcom’s death at 18 years old from tuberculosis had a significant impact on Turing and led to his lifelong fascination with the mind and consciousness. Turing began to explore the idea that the mind could be mechanised, a theme that would later become central to his work in artificial intelligence.

After leaving school, Turing followed his passion and pursued a degree in Mathematics at King’s College, Cambridge (1931-34) achieving First Class Honours. His primary interest was in pure mathematics, with a strong focus on logic, quantum mechanics, and probability theory. In 1935 he was elected a fellow of King’s College for his work in probability theory. The following year Turing published a seminal mathematics paper, ‘On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungs Problem, which came to be seen as a theoretical basis for today’s computers. It included a definition of the “universal machine”, a computer which held its programme on tape, laying the theoretical foundation for modern computers. Turing continued his studies, completing his PhD in Mathematical Logic at Princeton University in USA under the mathematician Alonzo Church. In 1938 he returned to England and began working for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park alongside his academic work and lecturing at Cambridge, before joining Bletchley full time following the outbreak of the war.

His wartime efforts at Bletchley Park, particularly in developing the Bombe machine to decrypt German Enigma cipher codes, significantly contributed to the Allied victory. It has been suggested that his codebreaking work shortened the war by three to four years, saving in excess of 20 million lives.

Key Contributions and Achievements in Manchester

The Ferranti Mark 1 and Programming Innovations

After the war, Turing was based at the National Physical Laboratory where he designed the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE – a computer which filled an entire room) and subsequently moved to Manchester University’s Computing Machine Laboratory in 1948, where he helped with the development of the Small Scale Experimental Machine (also known as ‘Baby’) which was the world’s first stored programme computer.

At the University of Manchester, Turing collaborated with engineers like Frederic C. Williams and Tom Kilburn and their efforts culminated in the development of the Manchester Mark 1. At this point, the UK Government Chief Scientist provided a substantial grant to local firm Ferranti and the computer was developed into Ferranti Mark 1 – the first commercially available general-purpose computer.

Manchester University SSEM ‘Baby’ replica on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Morphogenesis

Turing’s work in Manchester also included his pioneering work in artificial intelligence (AI). He proposed the concept of machine learning and introduced the “Turing Test” to assess a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from that of a human. The Turing Test is still used today, and while no AI has definitively passed the test, it is still a valuable framework for evaluating AI’s ability to mimic human conversation and is often used as a benchmark in AI research.

Additionally, Turing delved into mathematical biology, formulating reaction-diffusion models to explain patterns in nature, such as the arrangement of leaves and the stripes on animals, a field now known as morphogenesis. Turing’s groundbreaking 1952 paper, “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis,” proposed that patterns in biological organisms could be explained by the interaction of two chemicals, which he termed morphogens. These morphogens react and diffuse through space at different rates, forming stable patterns. This idea became known as the reaction-diffusion model. Turing’s equations showed how even a homogeneous collection of cells could spontaneously develop spatial patterns through small instabilities in concentration, providing a plausible mechanism for natural pattern formation.

A Quirky Mind in a Rigorous World

Geniuses are often described as eccentric, and Turing’s eccentric personality often became apparent in his daily habits. At Bletchley Park, he famously chained his tea mug to a radiator to prevent it from being stolen. He was also an exceptional long-distance runner and would often be seen jogging between meetings. Turing once clocked marathon times close to Olympic standard and even attempted to qualify for the 1948 British Olympic team.

Turing’s Personal Life and Persecution

Despite his groundbreaking achievements, Turing faced immense personal struggles due to his homosexuality, which was illegal in the UK at the time. In 1952, he was prosecuted for “gross indecency” after admitting to a consensual relationship with another man. Rather than serve a prison sentence, Turing chose chemical castration through hormone therapy, which caused severe physical and psychological side effects. His conviction led to the loss of his security clearance, barring him from further cryptographic work. Although he continued his research at Manchester, the stigma and surveillance he suffered had a significant impact upon him. On June 7, 1954, Turing was found dead at his home in Wilmslow from cyanide poisoning in an apparent suicide. Decades later, in 2009, he received a posthumous government apology, and, in 2013, a royal pardon. In 2017, the “Alan Turing Law” was enacted to pardon others similarly convicted, finally recognising the enormous injustice he and others had endured.

Impact on Manchester and Beyond

Turing’s work in Manchester had profound implications both locally and globally. The Ferranti Mark 1 not only sealed Manchester’s status as a hub for computer research but also laid the foundation for the UK’s computing industry. Turing’s research in AI and morphogenesis opened new avenues in computer science and biology, influencing generations of scientists. His legacy is commemorated in Manchester through landmarks like the Alan Turing Building at the University of Manchester and the Alan Turing Memorial in Sackville Gardens. In 2021, Turing’s contributions were nationally recognised when he was featured on the UK’s £50 banknote.

Legacy and Inspiration

Alan Turing’s time in Manchester, which is usually overshadowed by his achievements at Bletchley Park, was nevertheless a period of remarkable innovation that significantly advanced the fields of computing, artificial intelligence, and morphogenesis. His work not only transformed Manchester into a centre for technological development but also left lasting marks on the global scientific community.

As a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in the early 1950s, Turing embodied the organisation’s commitment to intellectual curiosity and interdisciplinary exploration.

 

Lit&Phil Member – Jon Sime

The Implications of Low Fertility Rates

Posted on: December 22nd, 2025 by Alan Wareham

The fertility rate in the UK – that is the average number of children born to a woman over her life – has fallen to under 1.5. This is well below the level at which the population would remain roughly constant in the absence of substantial net immigration. In the absence of such large net flows of people into the country the population will start to decline and continue to do so unless the fertility rate rises to a little over two. Some people believe that such a state of affairs poses serious economic and social problems. Many believe that the decline in fertility rates to, or in some cases well below, the UK level in many rich countries poses a substantial risk to the European way of life.

Part of the perceived risk is that economic growth will fall and could become negative. There is also believed to be a rising problem of care for the relatively elderly.

In this talk Professor David Miles CBE considers the scale of the risk, the factors behind the decline in fertility and whether policies to substantially boost fertility are either likely to succeed or if they are even ethical. He also considers the case for continued large scale migration to offset the effects of a low fertility rate.

The economic and social case that sustained low fertility rates poses severe problems is very far from obvious and he explored some of its underpinnings. The disadvantages of ever-growing populations are highly relevant to whether one views low fertility rates as a curse or a blessing. He used evidence from the past and speculated on how different patterns of fertility and net migration will affect the country over the next several decades.

Professor David Miles CBE also considered philosophical issues connected with population size and whether current generations have obligations to maintain populations.

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