About

Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Professor Matravers will be discussing the philosophy of T.E. Hulme, a philosopher and poet who has been called "The First Conservative of the 20th Century", and was described by T.S. Eliot as  "classical, reactionary, and revolutionary". Focusing on Hulme's thinking about the relationship between the individual and the state, we expect Prof. Matravers to talk about Hulme's view of human nature as deeply flawed, and therefore in need of external discipline, order and absolute values.

Derek Matravers read for a degree in Philosophy at University College, London, after which he completed a PhD at Darwin College, Cambridge. He was supervised by Hugh Mellor on the topic of 'Art and the Emotions'. He spent a further three years in Cambridge as a post-doctoral Research Fellow before moving to The Open University in 1994. He has written on various areas of aesthetics and the philosophy of art, as well as in ethics and the philosophy of mind. He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and has held visiting positions at the University of Latvia, the University of British Columbia, the University of Otago, Shanghai Normal University, Rhodes University (South Africa), and The University of Auckland.