The last of John Dupré’s lectures fell on a beautiful sunny Edinburgh day! It was followed by a succinct and passionate word of appreciation from Professor Stewart Brown. Below is the lecture summary and a response from PhD Student in Religious Studies Joseph Sedgwick. Aware that throughout the lectures he had been promoting the social […]

Dr Kate Nave is an Analysis Trust postdoctoral research fellow, with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on developing a realist account of agency, grounded in the uniquely metabolic existence of living systems, and upon critiquing the machine concept of the organism in light of this distinctive material instability. In his […]

Dupré’s penultimate lecture of this Gifford series concerned human nature. Chaired by Professor of Natural Theology Mark Harris. After the summary we have two excellent students providing responses, Jenny Zhang, PhD Cand. in Philosophy and Samuel Horsley, a PhD Student in Religious Studies. A necessary part of belonging to the human species is to fit […]

Professor Dupré bravely faced his fourth lecture on a bank holiday Monday, to a well-attended audience. The Lecture was chaired by Professor Lesley McAra, which included interesting reflections on how the process framework might relate to the criminal justice system, and involved lively questions. A response by Msc English Literature Student Anand Narayanan Neelamana Sankarankuttan […]

What is an organism? This is question that preoccupied our third Gifford lecture of the 2023 series. Dupré met an engaged audience at the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre, and responded enthusiastically to varied questions stemming from different disciplines. The summary and response from recent PhD Graduate Zahra Massoud is below. The standard view: two types […]

The most celebrated scientific idea in biology- evolution, of course is fundamentally based on a process of change. Dupré wants to expand this process of change through applying a processual perspective. What follows is a summary of the lecture and a short response from Ade, a PhD student studying at the University of Edinburgh.  The […]

John Dupré began his first Gifford Lecture in George Square, the heart of the University of Edinburgh campus, commencing the 2022/23 series. A good audience of 150 people met him and engaged enthusiastically with questions and with the Lecturer’s engaging style. The lecture was chaired by Professor Sarah Prescott, the Gifford Lectureship Convener and Head […]

Our 2022-23 Gifford Lecturer is Professor John Dupré from the University of Exeter.  Professor Dupré is the Consulting Director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences and is a Professor specialising in the Philosophy of Science, with a main focus on the philosophy of biology. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from […]

‘The very highest of which humankind is capable.’ Neiman believes this phrase is entirely applicable to Robeson. She points out that she had nevertheless not known of Robeson until her Chilean friend gifted her some albums in 1988, since his memory has been virtually erased in America. His voice was known to her but not […]