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2026 Programme
Dates: Starts Thursday 29 January 2026 and continues every second Thursday for six weeks.
Time: 7.00pm - 8.30pm
Location: JM Synge Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin.
Cost: €85 for the entire series (6 lectures). A concessionary rate of €40 applies to: students, OAPs, unemployed, groups of 20+, TCD staff and graduates.
Please note, due to the interactive nature of each session, including live Q&A, the Philosophy Today series will only be available for in-person attendance and will not be offered online.
2026 Programme
Thursday, 29th January 2026 | Dr Pablo Magaña Fernández
Levelling the Boardroom? The Philosophy (and Economics) of Workplace Democracy
Politicians and managers both wield power over our lives, yet only one group faces elections. Should workplaces be more democratic? Philosopher Pablo Magaña Fernández invites us to consider the case for workplace democracy, exploring what it might look like, why it matters, and how far it could change the way we work.
Thursday, 12th February 2026 | Dr Ashley Shaw
Subjects of Desire
From hunger and wanting to love and longing, our desires drive so much of what we do. But how do they shape our decisions, our values, and our sense of self? In this talk, philosopher Ashley Shaw explores how thinkers have tried to understand the power of desire, and what this can tell us about the complex ways our feelings and values shape the choices that define our lives.
Thursday, 26th February 2026 | Professor Tom Farrell
A Completed Science - More Than a Dream?
From atoms to galaxies, scientific progress has transformed our understanding of the world. But can it ever fully explain consciousness itself? Philosopher Tom Farrell considers the hope , and the limits, of the scientific project, asking whether the dream of a complete, materialist explanation of everything is within reach, or an illusion of our own making.
Thursday, 12th March 2026 | Professor Kenneth Silver
How Rich is Too Rich?
Debates about justice often focus on poverty, but what about wealth at the top? Philosopher Kenneth Silver explores the idea of 'Limitarianism' - the view that there’s a moral limit to how rich anyone should be. How might extreme wealth affect fairness, democracy, and social trust? And what, if anything, should we do about it?
Thursday, 26th March 2026 | Dr Rossella De Bernardi
The Ethics and Politics of Emotion Norms
From “no need to get angry” to “show more confidence,” we constantly encounter social rules about emotion. But who sets them, and who do they serve? Drawing on philosophy, psychology, and the sociology of emotions, Dr Rossella De Bernardi explores how these norms shape inequality and why they carry deep moral and political significance.
Thursday, 9th April 2026 | Dr Julian Bacharach
Memory: Link to the Past, or Mental Construction?
Can we trust our memories - or are they just stories we tell ourselves? Psychology and neuroscience reveal how memories are stitched together from fragments, shaped by bias, and prone to error. Yet far from a crisis, philosopher Julian Bacharach argues this reveals something essential about how memory connects us, not just to our past, but to one another through shared experience.