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Find fantastic resources to enrich your learning beyond the classroom - great for UCAS personal statement!

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The HE+ website brings you exciting supercurricular resources created and written by Cambridge students and academics including challenging activities, engaging videos, reflective questions and much more. Our content is aimed at school-aged students looking to go beyond the school curriculum and discover their passion for a subject today. Welcome to our academic community!

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This website is for students who are taking part in the HE+ project across the UK. Use the subject resources here to discover new interests and develop your academic skills.

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Events Archive - The Classical Association

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Events Archive - The Classical Association

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War Studies Podcast - Kings College University

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War Studies Podcast - Kings College University

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War Studies Podcast | Department of War Studies | King’s College London

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Find out more about our latest podcast episodes, exploring our research, expert opinion and solutions to global challenges.

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Take a look at the The Physiological Society YouTube video explaining what sport and exercise science is, to features on things like the science of cycling or training at altitude, their site will give you lots of insights into your subject area.

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Keep up to date with sports news and what’s happening in the industry and in different sports on BBC Sport .

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BBC Sport - Scores, Fixtures, News - Live Sport

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Sports news and live sports coverage including scores, results, video, audio and analysis on Football, F1, Cricket, Rugby Union and all other UK sports.

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Whilst not specifically focused on sports science, The High Performance Podcast  podcast interviews people who’ve excelled in their chosen field, and explores how they’ve done that. Guests include England women’s manager Sarina Wiegman and England cricketer Stuart Broad.

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CORPORATE AWAY DAYS

High Performance has now curated a Corporate Away Day that harnesses the educational qualities synonymous with the podcast and helps steer businesses in the right direction and educate on the mindset it takes to excel. High Performance have exclusively partnered with Pennyhill Park to bring the Away Day alive.
Limited dates available for 2022.

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High Performance has now curated a Corporate Away Day that harnesses the educational qualities synonymous with the podcast and helps steer businesses in the right direction and educate on the mindset it takes to excel. High Performance have exclusively partnered with Pennyhill Park to bring the Away Day alive.

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By playing the National Lottery, you're helping people across England play sport and get physically active. That's because two-thirds of our funding comes from the lottery. Thank you to everyone who has ever bought a ticket for supporting us in building a healthier, happier nation.

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Uniting | The | Movement | Sport England

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Sport England's vision is to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity, driven by Uniting the Movement, a 10-year strategy of change.

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The Institute of Economic Affairs is an educational charity and the UK’s original free market think tank, founded in 1955.

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....you never know, there might be an exciting option for you!

Current available roles

The NHS Confederation Primary Care Network are looking to recruit an intern! For more information email elisha@ihaveavoice.org.uk.

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you never know, there might be an exciting option for you! Current available roles The NHS Confederation Primary Care Network are looking to recruit an intern! For more information email elisha@ihaveavoice.org.uk.

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History Reading list and other resources

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History Reading list and other resources

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Archaeology

Ashmolean Museum - The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford's museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.

Archaeology Skills and Techniques - Fane Road Archaeology Group are predominantly enthusiastic amateurs but we work with expert archaeologists. The experts lead our community excavations, and they are available to train us in best practice techniques.

Current Archaeolgy - Discover everything you need to know about archaeology in Britain with Current Archaeology, the UK's favourite archaeology magazine.

National Geographic - Discover more about the world around you with this magazine

When did Greek statues become white? - Taster lecture in Classical Archaeology by Dr Milena Melfi, lecturer at the University of Oxford.

Young Archaeologists' Club - The Young Archaeologists' Club (YAC) is the only UK-wide club where 8-16 year olds can participate in real archaeology and discover why it matters

History

BBC History magazine - The official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed

BBC Radio 4 In Our Time - Explore historical themes, events, and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.

The British Museum - With over eight million objects, the British Museum is a unique place, bringing together under one roof the cultures of the world, spanning contients and oceans. No other museum is responsible for collections of the same depth and breadth, beauty and significance.

Historical Association - bringing together people who share an interest in, and love for the past and to further the study and teaching and enjoyment of History.

History Chicks - Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider's goal is to introduce you to female characters in history, factual or fictional via their podcast

Imperial War Muesum - IWM is a global authority on conflict and its impact on people's lives.

International health in global governance after the First World War - Patricia Clavin's research looks at how questions of global health and economic stability interconnect. With host Professor Rana Mitter, Patricia reveals how pandemics after the First World War helped produce new institutions of global governance, and the important role played by student activists, including some from Oxford. Patricia is Professor of International History and has written books on the history of the League of Nations, the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the history of internationalism.

Introduction to Ancient Greek History with Donald Kagan - This is an introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievements from the Bronze Age to the end of the classical period.

Killing Time - The podcast that investigates the darkest moments in our past to shine a light on wider histories.

Lest We Forget - Project led by the University of Oxford which aimed to capture the memories and stories of the First World War before they were lost to history.

Pitt Rivers Muesum - Founded in 1884, the Pitte Rivers Museum houses more than 500,000 objects, photographs, and manuscripts from all over the world, and from all periods of human existence.

The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World - Start exploring the Roman World with ORBIS' Roman map!

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Archaeology Ashmolean Museum - The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford's museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time. Archaeology Skills and Techniques - Fane Road Archaeology Group are predominantly enthusiastic amateurs but we work with expert archaeologists.

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All our competitions are running this year. Round 1 papers in November will be emailed out rather than posted. For practical activities you could look at Saturday Science where you will find many small to large scale activities which students can use to develop investigation skills and "learn about stuff".

We hold ten competitions organised through two strands:

All of these competitions can be entered by students in younger Year groups. About 10% of the entry in Round 1 is from Year 12, for example.

A welcome letter for teachers to introduce the BPhO 2020-21
BPhO yearly info letter 2020-21.pdf

A sheet summarising the competitions and dates is here:
Dates and Summary of Competitions 2020-21.pdf

A timeline for the competition papers is here:
BPhO Papers Flow Chart 2020-21.pdf

We would encourage you to get your student taking part in the Physics Challenge and Astro Challenge Papers. These can be used as a resource of interesting questions or as a school competition. They introduce problems in physics. The Astro Challenge has a few astronomy multiple choice questions to encourage observation and learning about the night sky, but the majority of the questions are accessible to students studying physics and show interesting applications in a specialised area. Details are given in the front page and the constants page if you go to

BPhO Competitions through the Academic Year (in date order)

 ## Why take part?

The British Physics Olympiad (BPhO) aims to encourage the study of Physics and recognise excellence in young physicists through ten annual Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics competitions.

The competitions are designed to test understanding and problem solving skills and are open to able young physicists in school years 11-13 (GCSE to A2/IB/Highers or equivalent).

Participation in a British Physics Olympiad is a challenge for able students which allows them to:

Have fun problem solving

Experience the perseverance and determination required to solve harder problems

Test their knowledge with stimulating questions

See the real-world problem-solving potential of physics

Practise open-ended and unstructured questions, as seen at higher levels of study

Gain a prestigious award for CVs and UCAS forms

Win Certificates and book prizes

Develop the skills required for admission to top universities

Compare their attainment with students from all over the United Kingdom

Qualify for additional training with the best students, and the chance to represent Britain at the International Physics Olympiad.

Setting and marking papers

We recognise that teachers are busy and aim to make our competitions as easy as possible to run in your school. Most examination papers require just one hour, either in lessons, after school or at home.

The Physics Challenge, and details of how to enter our other competitions are sent to all schools in September.

The Physics Challenge, Senior Physics Challenge and Intermediate Physics Challenge are supplied with easy-to-follow mark schemes and are marked in school. Any queries are dealt with promptly by the Administration Office. Certificates are emailed out to schools. Almost all of the competition papers are FREE to enter for UK schools.

The BPhO Round 1 and later rounds are marked by a team of experienced markers at Oxford.
Schools in China must participate through ASDAN China. To register please visit www.seedasdan.org/bpho, or contact science@seedasdan.org for more information.

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All our competitions are running this year. Round 1 papers in November will be emailed out rather than posted. For practical activities you could look at Saturday Science where you will find many small to large scale activities which students can use to develop investigation skills and "learn about stuff".

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Frequently asked questions

I missed the deadline to register my school - will it still be possible to enter?

Unfortunately not. We have to move on to processing entries as soon as the deadline passes, so it's not possible for us to accept late registrations.

Do I need to have the names of my students ready before I register?

No, we won't ask for the complete list until you upload your scores.

Can I register as an individual student?

If you would like to take part in the Chemistry Olympiad, you must let your school or college know so that they can register on your behalf. We can't accept registrations from students directly.

May I register a school from outside the UK?

The competition is free to schools in the British Isles. International schools in China can also enter, and should register through ASDAN China. Accredited British international schools overseas are eligible to enter and for these schools a fee is payable. Please email us if you think you are eligible to enter.

Are younger pupils allowed to enter?

Yes, however please bear in mind that the questions focus on topics typically covered in a student's final year of study. Because of this, Year 12s who are confident in their knowledge could take part, but GCSE students may find the subject matter too advanced.

Is a professional invigilator required?

No - the class teacher or other member of staff can invigilate the exam.

Can you provide the exam paper in accessible formats?

Yes - if significant accessibility changes are needed or if your students require the round one exam materials in braille, please inform us by email by 15 November. Should you require the exam paper in large print, you will be able to enlarge the text in the electronic copy we send you.

Results archive

Explore news articles covering results from the UK and International Chemistry Olympiad competitions.

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Find out more about the leading chemistry competition for secondary school students in the UK, including how to enter, supporting resources and FAQs.

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The British Biology Olympiad is aimed at students in their final year of pre-university education. Therefore, we specify that all students must be under the age of 19.

Whilst most students are 17-18, younger students often take part. Younger students are likely to perform better in the Intermediate Biology Olympiad (aimed at 16-17 year-olds) or Biology Challenge (aimed at 13-15 year-olds) which take place after the British Biology Olympiad.

Students from all types of schools, and from anywhere in the world can take part.

The examination assumes knowledge of the common elements of the biology A-level syllabi.

The medal boundaries are set using only students from UK schools, and are then awarded to all participating students.

Students which have not studied in the UK for the past two years, or who have attended an International Biology Olympiad previously, or who have attended team selection at the University of Warwick previously, are not normally eligible to participate in team selection. However, they may take part in the British Biology Olympiad.

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The British Biology Olympiad is aimed at students in their final year of pre-university education. Therefore, we specify that all students must be under the age of 19. Whilst most students are 17-18, younger students often take part.

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Subscribe to one or more of the journals below. You can get free access to many of these through your local library. https://www.sciencemag.org/ https://www.nature.com/ https://jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com/ https://academic.oup.com/jas

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Isaac Physics is a project designed to offer support and activities in physics problem solving to teachers and students from GCSE level through to university.

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We're the Young Scientists Journal, an international peer-review science journal written, reviewed and produced by school students aged 12 to 20. Over the past decade, we have connected students from over 50 countries and have been the vehicle of choice for many in getting their work published.

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by David Runciman and Catherine Carr
Go to website

Coronavirus! Climate! Brexit! Trump! Politics has never been more unpredictable, more alarming or more interesting: Talking Politics is the podcast that tries to make sense of it all. Every week David Runciman and Helen Thompson talk to the most interesting people around about the ideas and events that shape our world: from history to economics, from philosophy to fiction. What does the future hold?

Can democracy survive? How crazy will it get? This is the political conversation that matters.

Talking Politics is brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books, Europe's leading magazine of books and ideas.

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Coronavirus! Climate! Brexit! Trump! Politics has never been more unpredictable, more alarming or more interesting: Talking Politics is the podcast that tries to make sense of it all. Every week David Runciman and Helen Thompson talk to the most interesting people around about the ideas and events that shape our world: from history to economics, from philosophy to fiction.

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We've put together a recommended reading list for prospective students and for students starting at King's. None of these readings are required unless otherwise stated.

Please click here to see what modules are required for your programme.

All Programmes

Academic Writing Skills: Chapter 3 of Robert Leach, The Politics Companion (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Politics

Fundamentals of Politics Research

World Politics since 1945

No preparatory reading is expected for this course. It might be useful to order a version of the Baylis, Smith and Owens in advance so you have it for the start of the course. The 'Introduction' chapter is part of the essential reading for the first seminar in the week commencing 25 September.

This is used throughout the course as introductory reading. There are dozens of copies in the library, but these will be popular so it would be very useful to have your own copy. The 6th edition is also acceptable if you are looking for an inexpensive option, though note that page numbers and chapters will vary to those listed in the course guide.

Baylis, J., Smith, S. and Owens, P. (eds.) (2017) 'The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations'. 7th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brown, C. and Ainley, K. (2009) Understanding International Relations 4th Edition - (3rd edition digital copy available for free via the library - http://www.kcl.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=296368)

Burchill, S., Linklater, A. et al. (eds) (2013) Theories of International Relations, 5th edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Dunne, T., Kurki, M. and Smith, S. (2016) International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, 4th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Williams, P. D. (2014) Security Studies: An introduction, Routledge.

Calvocoressi, P. (2009) World Politics since 1945, Pearson Education.

Young, J. W. and Kent, J. (2004/14) International Relations since 1945: A global history, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Comparing Political Systems

Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt (2018). How Democracies Die. Crown Publisher

Norris, Pippa, and Ronald Inglehart (2019). Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge University Press.

Introduction to Political Theory

Wolff, J. (2006) An Introduction to Political Philosophy, Oxford: OUP.

Swift, A. (2006) Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians, Second Edition, Cambridge: Polity.

Barry, N. (2000) An Introduction to Modern Political Theory, Fourth Edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Goodin, R.E., Pettit, P. & Pogge, T. (eds.) (2012) A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Second Edition, Oxford: Blackwell.

Kymlicka, W. (2002) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, Second Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Statistics for Political Science

Foster, L., I. Diamond, and J. Jefferies. Beginning Statistics: An Introduction for Social Scientists. SAGE Publications, 2014.

Silver, Nate. The signal and the noise: why so many predictions fail--but some don't. Penguin, 2012.

Political Economy

Fundamentals of Politics Research

Comparing Political Systems

Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt (2018). How Democracies Die. Crown Publisher

Norris, Pippa, and Ronald Inglehart (2019). Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge University Press.

Introduction to Political Theory

Wolff, J. (2006) An Introduction to Political Philosophy, Oxford: OUP.

Swift, A. (2006) Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians, Second Edition, Cambridge: Polity.

Barry, N. (2000) An Introduction to Modern Political Theory, Fourth Edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Goodin, R.E., Pettit, P. & Pogge, T. (eds.) (2012) A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Second Edition, Oxford: Blackwell.

Kymlicka, W. (2002) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, Second Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Quantitative Methods

Moore / Notz / Fligner 'The Basic Practice of Statistics' 6th edition (2013) Palgrave.

Ben Goldacre 2009 Bad Science, Harper Perennial.

Principles of Economics

Please register for core-econ.org (online resource)

Rodrik, D. (2015) Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science, First Edition, New York: WW. Norton & Company Inc.

Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Introduction to Philosophy

Jennifer Nagel, (2014) Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press.

Alyssa Ney, (2014) Metaphysics: An Introduction, Taylor & Francis.

Julia Driver, (2005) Ethics: The Fundamentals, Wiley-Blackwell.

Comparing Political Systems

Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt (2018). How Democracies Die. Crown Publisher

Norris, Pippa, and Ronald Inglehart (2019). Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge University Press.

Political and Economic Philosophy

Mark Timmons, (2012) Moral Theory, An Introduction (Rowman and Littlefield)

Jonathan Anomaly, Geoffrey Brennan, Michael C. Munger, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, eds. 2016 Philosophy, Politics and Economics: An Anthology edited by, (Oxford University Press).

Elinor Ostrom, 1991 Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge University Press)

John Stuart Mill, (1859) On Liberty.

Principles of Economics

Please register for core-econ.org (online resource)

Rodrik, D. (2015) Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science, First Edition, New York: WW. Norton & Company Inc.

Quantitative Methods

Moore / Notz / Fligner 'The Basic Practice of Statistics' 6th edition (2013) Palgrave.

Ben Goldacre 2009 Bad Science, Harper Perennial.

Economics

Mathematics for Economists

Ian Jacques, Mathematics for Economics and Business.

Principles of Economics

Please register for core-econ.org (online resource)

Rodrik, D. (2015) Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science, First Edition, New York: WW. Norton & Company Inc.

Studying Economics

Statistics

Rowntree, D. (1981) Statistics Without Tears, Penguin Group.

The World Economy and its History

Allen, R. (2011) Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press.

Frieden, J. Globalization: Its Rise and Fall in the Twentieth Century. Norton & Company.

Kindleberger, C. World Economic Primacy, 1500-1990. Oxford University Press.

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Each year a large number of Oxford and Cambridge colleges run essay competitions for Year 12 students. Candidates are expected to demonstrate a flare for research and subject knowledge that stretches beyond the A-Level curriculum. We have gathered together some of the key essay competitions to enter across a number of subjects including Classics, History, STEM subjects, Philosophy, Archaeology and more. Time to prove you are Oxbridge level!

Read More →

The Annual DNA Day Essay Contest is run in honour of DNA day, which commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003 and the discovery of the double helix of DNA in 1953. The contest is open to students in grades 9-12 worldwide and asks students to examine, question, and reflect on important concepts in genetics.

View Event →

View Event →

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Top Choice Competitions - Minds Underground

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Essay competitions are great practice for students to hone their research and writing skills, particularly in preparation for future personal statement writing and university applications. We have listed our top choice competitions for students, spanning a range of subjects from science competitions

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MOOC is short for Massive Open Online Courses and they are mostly free. The range of online courses available is huge, from those that may be related to the subjects you are studying or ones that help to develop your soft skills.

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Browse Free High-Quality Online Courses | MOOC.org

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MOOCs provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills. Filter and browse from over 3,000 online courses on MOOC.org.

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Top Free Online Courses | Earn Certificates & Diplomas | Alison®

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Discover over 4000 free online courses across a wide range of categories at Alison®. Enroll today and start earning valuable certificates and degrees.

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Dan Snow's History Hit is the UK's most successful history podcast, with almost a million listens every month. Dan travels the length and breadth of the country to keep up with the cutting edge of history, talking to experts, historians, and the people who were actually there.

It's both Dan's mission and passion to give you the history behind the news, and the context you need to understand the modern world.
As well as being on major podcast platforms, you can listen to Dan Snow's History Hit ad-free on History Hit TV.
You can use the below player to listen to the latest podcast:

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Dan Snow's History Hit is the UK's most successful history podcast, with almost a million listens every month. Dan travels the length and breadth of the country to keep up with the cutting edge of history, talking to experts, historians, and the people who were actually there.

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Climate Change - the board game is a scientific board game created to show how climatic changes affect animal species over long periods of times (in the order of millions of years), leading to their migration, evolution or extinction. It has been designed based on the evolution of medium-large mammals and it is inspired by the research performed in the Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.

Each player is a species, living in a world where the climate may change every now and then. Every species has its own DNA and collects mutations through time, allowing it to adapt to new habitats.

This board game explores in a rigorous but simple way complex scientific concepts such as adaptation, evolution, speciation and extinction. In the near future, this website will contain additional material to help better understand the science behind the game. There is also the opportunity to explore the effects on animal species of the current human-induced climate changes with respect to the natural ones.

This game is for 2 to 5 players and is suitable for people aged 8 and older. The approximate duration is 30 minutes. It has been designed as an educational resource for schools, but can be played also with family or friends.

Playing in person

Everything needed to play Climate change - the board game can be printed from the files, included the species figurines and a die, that should be cut and glued. Of course, you can also create your own species figurines, or use anything you may find fit (my favourite options are Legos or pasta animals).

By clicking on the links, you will download the PDF files directly. All material has been designed to be colourblind safe and can be printed even in black and white without losing readability.

Habitat boards file (high resolution, can be printed up to A3): 5 boards + a blank one that can be hand-coloured and customised as needed.

Materials file: 5 species figurines (to be cut and glued), a die (to be cut and glued), cards, etc.

Rules file: rules on how to play

If you don't have access to a printer you can easily hand-draw most of the material (see picture below). Boards are a bit more tricky, if you need to draw them I suggest to transform the cells into squares and then let species move into the 8 squares surrounding the occupied one.

Playing online

Thanks to the game developer Alessandro Crespi it is now possible to play Climate Change - the Board Game online (English version only) through the platform VASSAL. The instructions for playing online can be found here.

Additional material

We will soon publish in this website new material associated with the board game (quiz, alternative scenarios, scientific background, etc.).

Credits

Author: Dr Michela Leonardi, Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.
Within the " Meet the experts" project, Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge.

Twitter: @MikLeonardi, @EEG_Cam, @ZoologyMuseum

Collaborators: Dr Eleanor Miller (1), Dr Gian Luigi Somma (1), Prof Elisa Anna Fano (2), Prof Andrea Manica (1), Dr Rosalyn Wade (3)

(1) Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK.
(2) Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Italy.
(3) Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Translators:
Portuguese/Brazilian: Dr Tiago Tresoldi (1)
Turkish: Nihan Dilşad Dağtaş (2)

(1) Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
(2) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society of Turkey, Ankara, Turkey
Online module developer:
Alessandro Crespi
Fundings: ERC Consolidator Grant 647787 "LocalAdaptation"

Climate Change - the board game, including all associated images and text have been published under a Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Web and media coverage

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Climate change the board game | Michela Leonardi

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Climate change the board game is a free educational board game about evolution and climate change. Print-and-play, for kids and adults.

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Reputable sources include:

Al Jazeera English

BBC News online

CNN online

Daily Telegraph

The Independent

The Economist

The Guardian

The New Statesman magazine

The Times

A useful way to encounter stories relevant to your academic interests and, more generally, to practise assessing arguments and weighing evidence.

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Pitte Rivers Museum houses more than 500,000 objects, photographs, and manuscripts from all over the world, and from all periods of human existence.

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Lest We Forget was a National Lottery Heritage Funded project led by the University of Oxford and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that aimed to collect and digitally archive First World War artefacts stored in bedrooms and attics across the United Kingdom.

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Welcome to Killing Time, the podcast that investigates the darkest moments in our past to shine a light on wider histories.

Welcome to Killing Time, the podcast that investigates the darkest moments in our past to shine a light on wider histories.

Interesting

I've only just stumbled across this podcast. Enjoyable, Interesting conversations and guests.

Are there any more?

Will there be any more?

Amazing!

Love this podcast, it's reignited my interest in history and I love the subjects talked about in the podcast ❤️

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‎Killing Time with Rebecca Rideal on Apple Podcasts

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Welcome to Killing Time, the podcast that investigates the darkest moments in our past to shine a light on wider histories.

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Lecture: Introduction to Ancient Greek History

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Lecture: Introduction to Ancient Greek History

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Introduction to Ancient Greek History with Donald Kagan

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This is an introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievem...

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Lecture: International health in global governance after the First World War

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Lecture: International health in global governance after the First World War

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD19Ta8hV9Y

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Oxford at Home: International health in global governance after the First World War

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Imperial War Museums explores conflict from WW1 to the present day. Visit one of our five sites or explore our archives to discover real stories of modern war.

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Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider's goal is to introduce you to female characters in history, factual or fictional via their podcast

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We're making some changes behind the scenes, cleaning things up and, for the most part, you won't even know how busy we are with one exception:

We have to swap podcast players on every shownote we have on this website and it's going to take us a bit. If the episode that you're trying to play ON THIS SITE ONLY isn't working, it just means we haven't gotten there yet, but we will!

There will be no interruption of our episodes on most podcatchers like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, CastBox, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict...etc. (you get the point.) The only place that we are no longer available is Wondery+ (and if you're one of the very few who listened there, we're very sorry about that!)

XO

Beckett and Susan

Frances Glessner Less was a woman of unyielding determination and creative energy who used everything at her disposal (invcluding a vast inheritance) for both the common good and to further science in the field we now know as forensic Medicine.

Frances Lee was born into a very wealthy family on March 25, 1878, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father's position as a founding executive (at the company that would eventually become International Harvester) funded the family's lavish life in both Chicago and at their summer home called The Rocks, in New Hampshire. Her mother was an intellectually curious member of Chicago society who put her efforts not only into the arts (helping found the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for instance) but also in assisting her two children to pursue their own interests.

Frances' brief marriage resulted in three children, but her interest in medicine, science, law enforcement, and various crafts converged to forge her legacy when she put her everything into helping found the Department of Legal Medicine (the forerunner to forensic science) at Harvard University. She would go on to not only personally build a library for the college in this field, but to spread the science of it into communities all across the United States with lectures and twice-annual seminars for law enforcement personnel beginning in the 1940s

At these seminars, which she organized and ran, she crafted exquisitely detailed, miniature crime dioramas for the attendees to sharpen their skills in detective work and expand their knowledge of the science of death. Called the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, they aren't macabre dollhouses, they are highly detailed learning tools...and they're still in use today.

Frances Glessner Lee, at the age of 83, died on January 27, 1962 at her home. She's buried in the Maple Street Cemetary in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.

Time Travel With The History Chicks
Web!
Glessner House virtual tour! Don't miss Frances' symphony gift for her mom! And here's some information on the Glessner house itself.

The Rocks in Bethlehem NH...the perfect place to buy your Christmas tree (and hike the trails, take classes, and maybe have a wedding. To learn more about the fire and restoration projects since, visit THE ROCKS.
Harvard Associates in Police Science is still an active organization that holds an annual Frances Glessner Lee Homicide Investigation seminar.
Frances is mentioned on the Harvard Medical School History website in regard to the Nutshell Studies and the Legal Medicine department...but not as boldly as we would like. Maybe this was an artifact from her "behind the scenes days" because it couldn't possibly be an intentional slight...could it?

The story about the discovery of Nutshell #20 on NPR.

Want to learn about the history of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra?

Intrigued by the work of the Body Farm? It's for science and we think Frances would approve!

We're pretty excited to see miniatures around the world! The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has Beckett's favorite, Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle, then there's Queen Mary's at Windsor , the Thorne Miniatures at the Chicago Art Institute, and an entire museum dedicated to miniatures and toys in Kansas City, The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures.

Traveling through Kansas? Maybe you should stop at the World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things?

And a history that only makes sense after you listen to the episode but we love a good Rabbit Hole: History of Coca-Cola.
Moving Pictures!
Season 17, episode 14 of NCIS has it all: Nutshell-style dioramas, mentions of Frances, an involved podcast audience...okay, that's all it has but, you know, entertaining. Catch it wherever you watch that long-running show.

The documentary, Of Dolls and Murder, is on YouTube, but it requires permissions to watch it, so you can search for it yourself over there.

CBS Sunday Morning's coverage of the showing of the Nutshell studies:

Break music: The Banks of Green Willow, by George Butterworth; end music, Victim of Crime, by Heifervescent used with permission, ilicense Music.
This episode was sponsored by Honeylove and Betterhelp

In mid-September, a group of fifty travelers, two podcast hosts, and two travel organizers converged on London with the goal of standing together where history happened. Goal achieved and far exceeded!

We (the two aforementioned podcast hosts) wanted to hear from the travelers themselves about their journey, so we've invited them to help create this episode. You'll hear tales of art, theater, adventure, side-quests, and lots of history- but perhaps the greatest experiences for all of the travelers were the friendships made along the way.

Laura Hart, of L ike Minds Travel, had carefully planned this adventure to hit places that we have talked about on previous episodes, as well as leaving a bit of time each day for people to head out on side-quests and do things that were special to them. Thanks to technology, the entire group had met virtually long before Day One and planned these excursions together.

"Anyone want to visit the Churchill War Rooms?" someone would ask in our WhatsApp group. Next thing we knew, the side quest had been planned, people had signed up, and tickets were purchased. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It was a glorious thing to watch happen and a more glorious thing to experience.

Here are some of the highlights of our Field Trip, but listen to the episode for more details from the people who lived them!

Stay tuned for announcements in the near future about Field Trips for 2024!
While we're on a Field Trip, we turned the show over to the Roosters this week with a Veuve Clicquot adjacent subject: The History of Absinthe with The Gilded Gentleman, Carl Raymond. Keep an ear out for cameos from Bowery Boy Greg Young, and Chris Graham Beckett's husband. Carl talks with Don Spiro, creator of New York's Green Fairy Society to tell the truth and bust the myths, surrounding this historic beverage. For show notes on this episode, visit The Bowery Boys New York History. Thank you, Carl, Don, Greg, and Chris!

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Two women. Half the population. Several thousand years of history. About an hour.

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Historical Association - the UK national charity for history

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We support the teaching, learning and enjoyment of history. Join us to help inspire future generations and meet others who share an interest in the past.

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What's in the current issue of BBC History Magazine? What's in the next issue of BBC History Magazine?

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Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford

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The Colour of White - When did Greek Statues become White?

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One of our objectives is to provide the skills, techniques and confidence to anyone who wants to get involved with archaeology. Whilst some archaeology textbooks may seem tedious, and techniques increasingly technical, there are plenty of meaningful activities for the amateur archaeologist. Moreover, archaeology funding organisations (such as the Heritage Lottery Fund) increasingly favour local community involvement.

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Admission free. Discover half a million years of art and archaeology, from Egyptian mummies to modern art, at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

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Listen: Institute of Art and Ideas Podcast

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Listen: Institute of Art and Ideas Podcast

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Read: Aquinas' Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy

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Read: Aquinas' Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy

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1. Interpretations and method

Aquinas' moral and political philosophy has to be reconstructed from his theological treatises and commentaries and his commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and the first two and half books of Aristotle's Politics. Its proper interpretation has been a matter of some difficulty from the time of his death in 1274. In recent decades the way to understand some aspects of its foundational concepts and logic has been strenuously disputed, not least among those philosophers who see it as offering a broadly sound answer to radical scepticism about value and obligation, an answer truer and more human than Kant's or Bentham's or their (in the broadest sense) successors'. A partial sample of these controversies is given in 1.1 and 1.2 below, which state the more common interpretation on two strategic issues and then elaborate objections to those interpretations. The remainder of this article then proceeds on the basis that there is merit in these objections, and that the study of Aquinas' ethics as a systematic and strictly philosophical work of practical reason (at its most general and reflective) is still in its infancy. Further textual support, from over 60 of Aquinas' works, can be found in Finnis 1998. Criticisms of the interpretation of Aquinas' theory that is proposed in that work can be found in Paterson 2006, Wheatley 2015, Long 2004, and earlier in Lisska 1998 and McInerny 1997. These works argue in various ways that that interpretation denies or neglects the metaphysical foundations of the principles of practical reason that it offers to identify. Support, in general, for the approach in this article will be found in Rhonheimer 2012 and 2000. The first issue underlying this debate is whether the order of inquiry and coming to know (the epistemological order) is the same as the order of metaphysical dependence. The second issue is whether we can settle the first issue by using the epistemological axiom that we come to an (ultimately metaphysical) understanding of dynamic natures by understanding capacities through their actuations - which, in turn, we come to understand by understanding their objects. Does or does not that axiom entail that understanding of objects such as the intelligible goods (the objects of acts of will) precedes an adequate knowledge of nature, notwithstanding that (as is agreed on all sides) in the metaphysical order of intrinsic dependence such objects could not be willed or attained but for the given nature of (in this case) the human person?

1.1 Is the notion of "distinctive human function" foundational for Aquinas?

One line of understanding is exemplified by the section on "moral doctrine" in McInerny and O'Callaghan 2005. It gives a priority to Aristotle's arguments attempting to identify a "distinctive" or "peculiarly human" function, arguments which proceed on the postulate that, if each kind of craft has its own characteristic function and mode of operation, so must human life as a whole have an "overall" and "distinctively characteristic" function and operatio; and the determination of this should decisively shape the whole of (the rest of) ethics and political theory. To this standard interpretation other interpreters, such as Grisez, Finnis, and Rhonheimer, object on grounds such as these:

(i) Aquinas' austerely self-disciplined purposes as an Aristotelian commentator make quite insecure any assumption that he treats as fundamental to his own thinking any and every proposition which is treated by Aristotle as fundamental and expounded in Aquinas' relevant commentary without adverse comment.

(ii) The " distinctive function " argument is not prominent or adduced as fundamental (or at all) in Aquinas' more free-standing treatments of morality.

(iv) The "distinctive function" argument is inherently unsatisfying in ways that could hardly have failed to be apparent to so able a philosopher as Aquinas. (a) In Aquinas' rendering, it depends on the postulate that "nature does nothing in vain", which in turn depends, according to Aquinas, on the premise that nature is the product of divine creative rationality, a premise which Aquinas himself argues is, though provable, by no means self-evident. (b) It seems arbitrary to assume that, if there is an appropriate function or operatio of human beings, it must be peculiar to them. For peculiarity or distinctiveness has no inherent relationship to practical fittingness, and in fact Aquinas elsewhere denies that rationality is peculiar to human beings since he holds that there are other intelligent creatures (the angels, understood to be created minds unmixed with matter, occupying what would otherwise be a surprising gap in the hierarchy of beings which ascends from the most material and inactive kinds through the vegetative kinds, the animal kinds, and the rational animal humankind, to the one utterly active and intelligent, non-dependent and uncreated divine being).

(v) The root of the weakness of the "peculiar/distinctive function" argument is that it is looking in the wrong direction, towards a metaphysical proposition concerning the nature of things, instead of towards what is intelligibly good as an opportunity, perhaps even the supreme opportunity, for me and anyone like me (any human being). And it is a truly fundamental methodological axiom of Aquinas's philosophy, from beginning to end of his works, that in coming to understand the nature of a dynamic reality such as human being, one must first understand its capacities, to understand which one must first understand its act(ivities), to understand which one must first come to understand those activities' objects. But the objects of human activities are intelligible opportunities such as coming to know, being alive and healthy, being in friendship with others, and so forth - objects whose attractiveness, fittingness, opportuneness, or appropriateness is in no way dependent upon, or even much enhanced by, the thought that they are distinctively characteristic of human beings as opposed to other animals.

1.2 Is the identification of "man's last end" foundational for Aquinas?

Along with very many other Thomistic commentators, McInerny and O'Callaghan 2005 and Celano 2003 treat Aquinas' moral philosophy as founded, like his moral theology, upon his determination of what felicitas (= perfecta beatitudo and Aristotle's eudaimonia) truly is, a determination made in the opening quaestiones of the Second Part of his Summa Theologiae, where he elaborately argues that complete beatitudo or felicitas consists in an uninterruptible vision of God (and, in God, of the other truths we naturally desire to know), something possible for us only in a life - in many respects another life - after death. But it is possible to regard Aquinas' argument in those quaestiones as dictated by the needs of a specifically theological pedagogy, as open to telling objections, and as detachable from (or at least as methodologically posterior to) the working and sound foundations of his moral philosophy and his treatment of specific moral issues - detachable, that is to say, in a way that Aquinas would not need to regard as inappropriate in the different context of today's discourse. This article will treat Aquinas' ethics and political theory as detachable from his theology of life's ultimate point, and will take seriously his emphatic and reiterated thesis that, apart from the divinely given and super-natural opportunity of perfecta beatitudo (a gift about which philosophy as such knows nothing), the only ultimate end and beatitudo (fulfillment) for human beings is living in a completely reasonable, morally excellent ( virtuosus) way. That thesis entails that philosophy's main account of morality need and should contain no claim about what perfect happiness consists in.

Despite surface appearances, Aquinas is conscious of Aristotle's failure to settle whether it is contemplation or political praxis that is the essence of human fulfillment. He therefore attempts, more intently than Aristotle did in any surviving work, to identify what the first principles of ethics and politics are, and to do so without any premises or presuppositions about a unitary "last end of human existence".

Moreover, when Aquinas does refer to beatitudo as fundamental to identifying the principles of practical reason and the natural (because reasonable) moral law, he in the same breath emphasizes that this is not to be thought of as the happiness of the deliberating and acting individual alone, but rather as the common flourishing of the community, ultimately the whole community of humankind:

The "complete community" mentioned here is the political community, with its laws, but the proposition implicitly refers also to the community of all rational creatures, to whose common good morality (the moral law) directs us.

1.2.1 Philosophy and theology in Aquinas' theory of morality and politics

Detaching Aquinas' philosophy from his theology is compatible with distinctions he firmly delineates at the beginning of his two mature theological syntheses, the Summa contra Gentiles and the Summa Theologiae. (i) There are truths, he says, which are accessible to natural reason, that is, to ordinary experience (including the specialized observations of natural scientists), insight, and reflection; and these include practical truths about good and evil, right and wrong. (ii) Many of those truths of natural reason are confirmed, and even clarified, by divine revelation, that is, the propositions communicated directly or inferentially in the life and works of Christ, as transmitted by his immediate followers and prepared for in the Jewish scriptures accepted by those followers as revelatory. (iii) Some of the truths divinely revealed could not have been discovered by natural, philosophical reason, even though, once accepted, their content and significance can be illuminated by the philosophically ordered reflection which he calls theology.

The philosophical positions in ethics and politics (including law) that are explored in this article belong to categories (i) and (ii). The moral and political norms stated, for example, in the biblical Decalogue are, in Aquinas' view, all knowable independently of that revelation, which confirms and perhaps clarifies them. But the propositions that he holds about what the true last end or ultimate destiny of human beings actually is belong to category (iii) and cannot be affirmed on any philosophical basis, even though philosophy, he thinks, can demonstrate that they are neither incoherent nor contrary to any proposition which philosophy shows must be affirmed.

2. Practical reason's first principles

2.1 Precondition: capacity for self-determination by free choices

Practical reason's central activity is deliberation about what to do. One would have no need to deliberate unless one were confronted by alternative attractive possibilities for action (kinds of opportunity) between which one must choose (in the sense that one cannot do both at the same time, if at all) and can choose. The standards that one comes to understand to be the appropriate guides for one's deliberation, choice and action give such guidance, not by predicting what one will do, but by directing what one should do. (The "should" here may but need not be moral.) There could be no normativity, no practical (choice-guiding) directiveness, unless free choices were really possible.

He is also insistent that if there were no such freedom and self-determination, there could be no responsibility (fault, merit, etc.), and no sense or content to any ought (normativity) such as ethics is concerned with.

2.1.1 Choice, intention and act-descriptions

Aquinas pulls together into a powerful (though confusingly expounded) synthesis a long tradition of analysis of the elements of understanding (reason) and intelligent response (will) that constitute deliberation, choice, and execution of choice: ST I-II qq. 6-17. The analysis shows the centrality of intention in the assessment of options and actions. In a narrow sense of the word, intention is always of ends and choice is of means; but since every means (save the means most proximate to sheer trying or exertion) is also an end relative to a more proximate means, what is chosen when one adopts one of two or more proposals (for one's action) that one has shaped in one's deliberation is rightly, though more broadly, said to be what one intends, what one does intentionally or with intent(ion), and so forth. An act(ion) is paradigmatically what it is intended to be; that is, its morally primary description - prior to any moral evaluation or predicate - is the description it had in the deliberation by which one shaped the proposal to act thus. Aquinas' way of saying this is: acts are specified by - have their specific character from - their objects, where "objects" has the focal meaning of proximate end as envisaged by the deliberating and acting person. Of course, the behavior involved in that act can be given other descriptions in the light of conventions of description, or expectations and responsibilities, and so forth, and one or other these descriptions may be given priority by law, custom, or some other special interest or perspective. But it is primarily on acts qua intended, or on the acts (e.g. of taking care) that one ought to have intended, that ethical standards (moral principles and precepts) bear. To repeat: in the preceding sentence "intended" is used in the broad sense; Aquinas sometimes employs it this way (e.g. ST II-II q. 64 a. 7), though in his official synthesis the word is used in the narrower sense to signify the ( further) intention with which the act's object was chosen - object being the most proximate of one's (broad sense) intentions.

2.2 Context: the open horizon of human life as a whole

Ethical standards, for which practical reason's first principles provide the foundations or sources, concern actions as choosable and self-determining. They are thus to be distinguished clearly, as Aristotle already emphasized, from standards which are practical, rational, and normative in a different way, namely the technical or technological standards internal to every art, craft, or other system for mastering matter. Aquinas locates the significant and irreducible difference between ethics and all these forms of "art" in three features: (i) Moral thought, even when most unselfishly concerned with helping others through the good effects of physical effort and causality, is fundamentally concerned with the problem of bringing order into one's own will, action, and character, rather than the problem of how to bring order into the world beyond one's will. (ii) Correspondingly, the effects of morally significant free choices (good or evil) are in the first instance intransitive (i.e., effects on the will and character of the acting person). Only secondarily are they transitive effects on the world, even when that person's intentions are focused, as they normally should be, on the benefits of those external effects. (iii) Whereas every art and technique has a more or less limited objective (end) which can be accomplished by skillful deployment of the art, moral thought has in view an unlimited and common (shared) horizon or point, that of "human life as a whole [ finis communis totius humanae vitae]" ( ST I-II q. 21 a. 2 ad 2), for each of one's morally significant choices (for good or evil) is a choice to devote a part of one's single life to a purpose which could have been any of the whole open-ended range of purposes open to human pursuit for the sake of benefiting all or any human being(s).

2.3 At the origin of Ought

Practical reason, in Aquinas' view, has both one absolutely first principle and many truly first principles: ST I-II q. 94 a. 2. The absolutely first principle is formal and in a sense contentless. Like the logical principle of non-contradiction which controls all rational thought, it expresses, one might say, the pressure of reason and is so far from being empty of significance and force that its form may be regarded as the frame, and its normativity the source, for all the normativity of the substantive first principles and of the moral principles which are inferable from them. Aquinas articulates it as "Good is to be done and pursued, and bad avoided" (ibid.).

This has often been truncated to (i) "Good is to be done, and evil avoided" or even, more drastically, (iia) "Do good and avoid evil" or yet more drastically (iib) "Avoid evil and seek the good". But Grisez 1963 gave reason to think these abbreviations both exegetically and philosophically unsound. The first practical principle is not a command or imperative as (ii) would have it, nor is it a moral principle as all these formulae suggest by omitting "to be pursued" (see 2.7 below). Both in grammar and in propositional content, the principle's gerundive "is-to-be" is neither imperative nor predictive, but rationally directive - an ought - in the way that gets its fully developed and central sense and normativity in the more specified ought of moral standards.

2.4 First principles of practical reason

If Plato and Aristotle fail to articulate substantive first principles of practical reason, and if Kant overlooks them in favor of the quasi-Humeian notions of motivation that dominate ethics during the Enlightenment (and ever since), the articulation of such principles by Aquinas deserves attention.

2.4.1 First principles are insights into the data of experience and understood possibility

Moreover, when describing the first practical principles as self-evident, Aquinas emphasises that self-evidence is relative: what is not obvious to some will be self-evident to those who have more ample experience and a better understanding of other aspects of the matter. And we should expect our understanding of first principles to grow as we come to understand more about the objects to which they refer and direct (e.g. knowledge, human life, marriage, etc.).

2.4.2 Their Oughts are not inferred from any Is

2.4.3 A sample first principle: Knowledge is pursuit-worthy

2.5 The other basic goods

Similarly, as is entailed by the epistemological principle that nature is known by capacities, capacities by acts, and acts by their objects (see 1.1(v) above), these basic goods, being the basic objects of will and free action, are the outline of human nature. The is of an adequate account of human nature is dependent upon prior grasp of the oughts of practical reason's first, good-identifying principles, even though that prior grasp was made possible by that partial understanding of human nature which comes with an understanding of certain lines of causality and possibility. But defending the epistemological priority of the intelligible objects of will in explanations of practical reason does not entail (contrast McInerny 1992) any denial of the metaphysical priority of the naturally given facts about the human makeup.

2.6 Known by (or from) inclination?

Many modern accounts of Aquinas' theory of natural law give explanatory primacy to the naturalness of the inclinations (to live, to know, etc.) that correspond to these basic goods. But others regard this as a fundamental misunderstanding of Aquinas' conception of will, and of the epistemological relationship between nature and reason. Will is for him intelligent response to intelligible good: one's will is "in" one's reason [ voluntas in ratione]. He makes it very explicit both that human actions are rightly said to be natural (in the morally relevant sense of "natural") when and because they are intelligent and reasonable ( ST I-II q. 71 a. 2), and that there are inclinations which are natural, in the sense that they are commonly found or characterize some or even most individuals, yet are unnatural because lacking any intelligibly good object. So explanatory priority must be accorded to the basic human goods themselves, and to the self-evident desirability which makes each of them the object of an inclination in the will of anyone sufficiently intelligent and mature to understand their goodness (that is, the way they make human beings more fulfilled, more "perfect" [complete]). An inclination of that kind is relevant in practical reason because its object is desirable, and desirable because it would contribute to anyone's flourishing. To say this is not to say that our natural inclinations to what contributes to our flourishing are mere accident or happenstance.

2.7 Only incipiently moral

Many nineteenth- and early twentieth century accounts of Aquinas took it that the first principles of practical reason, which he regularly calls first principles of natural law or natural right, are moral principles picking out kinds of human act as to be done (e.g. alms-giving to the poor) or not done (e.g. murder, adultery), in the manner of the Commandments. But though there are a few passages in which Aquinas himself speaks in that way, they can be read down so as to make them consistent with the more strategic passages in which he speaks of such moral principles or norms as "derived" conclusions from first principles. (See also 3.3 below.) Even immoral people so blinded by culture or disposition that they do not make these inferences nevertheless can and normally do understand the first principles of practical reason and are guided by them, though imperfectly, in their deliberations.

Against Kant's assumption that, since the ends toward which one wishes to act are subjective because projected, and established in one's deliberating and willingness (as Hume proposed), by one's subrational desires, practical reason's function is to limit and channel one's pursuit of those ends, Aquinas considers that practical reason's first and fundamental operation is not limiting, confining or negative but rather facilitating and positive: finding and constructing intelligible ends to be pursued ( prosequenda), ends that give intelligent point to our behavior.

The thesis that the first practical principles are only incipiently moral should not be confused with the widespread modern opinion that practical reason's default position is self-interest or "prudential" reason, so that there is a puzzle about how one transits from this to morality. In Aquinas' classical view, one's reason (as distinct from some of one's customary ways of thinking) naturally understands the primary or basic goods as good for anyone, and further understands that it is good to participate in the many forms of friendship which require that one set aside all merely emotionally motivated self-preference.

3. Moral principles

3.1 Conscience

Conscience in Aquinas' view is not a special power or presence within us, but is our practical intelligence at work, primarily in the form of a stock of judgments about the reasonableness (rightness) or unreasonableness (wrongness) of kinds of action (kinds of option). Since each such judgment is of the form "[It is true that] action of the kind phi is always [or generally] wrong [or: is generally to be done, etc.]" or " phi is [always] [or: generally] required [or forbidden] by reason", it must be the case - as Aquinas stresses very forcefully - that one's conscience is binding upon oneself even when it is utterly mistaken and directs or licenses awful misdeeds. For since it is logically impossible that one could be aware that one's present judgment of conscience is mistaken, setting oneself against one's own firm judgment of conscience is setting oneself against the goods of truth and reasonableness, and that cannot fail to be wrong: ST I-II q. 19 a. 5; Ver. q. 17 a. 4. The fact that, if one has formed one's judgment corruptly, one will also be acting wrongly if one follows it ( ST I-II q. 19 a. 6) does not affect the obligatoriness (for oneself) of one's conscience. This teaching about conscience was rather novel in his day and to this day is often misrepresented or misapplied as a kind of relativism or subjectivism. But it is actually an implication of Aquinas' clarity about the implications of regarding moral judgments as true (or false) and of thus rejecting subjectivism and relativism.

3.2 The supreme moral principle

The supreme moral principle of love of neighbor as self has, Aquinas thinks, an immediately proximate specification in the Golden Rule: Others are to be treated by me as I would wish them to treat me. The tight relation between the love principle and the Golden Rule suggests that love and justice, though analytically distinguishable, certainly cannot be contrasted as other and other. "Neighbor" excludes no human being anywhere, insofar as anyone could be benefited by one's choices and actions. To love someone is essentially to will that person's good. The reasonable priorities among all these persons as objects of one's love, goodwill and care are discussed by Aquinas both as an "order of love(s)" [ ordo amoris] and as a matter of right and justice.

3.2.1 The fuller version: the place of the transcendent

Since Aquinas thinks that the existence and providence of God, as the transcendent source of all persons and benefits, is certain, his usual statement of the master moral principle affirms that one should love God and one's-neighbor-as-oneself. But since he accepts that the existence of God is not self-evident, he can allow that the more strictly self-evident form of the master moral principle refers only to love of human persons (self and neighbors). He would add that, once the existence and nature of God is accepted, as it philosophically should be, the rational requirement of loving God, and thus the fuller version of the master moral principle, is self-evident. He also holds that one does not offend against this requirement of loving God except by making choices contrary to human good, that is, to love of self or neighbor: ScG III c. 122 n. 2.

3.3 Moral precepts are further specifications of this master principle and its immediate specifications

All moral principles and norms, Aquinas thinks, can be inferred - as either implicit in, or "referable to" as conclusions from - the moral first principle of love of neighbor as self: ST I-II q. 99 a. 1 ad 2 with q. 91 a. 4c and q. 100 a. 2 ad 2; q. 100 aa. 3 and 11c. But he never displays an example or schema of these deduction-like inferences. Consequently, as noted in 2.7 above, his would-be successors have sometimes proposed that moral principles and norms have the self-evidence of first principles, and sometimes, equally desperately, have offered premises which, though suggested by some of Aquinas's argumentation or remarks, are incoherent with his general theory - e.g. that natural functions are not to be frustrated.

An adequate exposition and defence of the moral norms upheld by Aquinas requires a critique, only hints for which can be found in his work, of theories which claim that choice can and should rationally be guided by a utilitarian, consequentialist or proportionalist master principle calling for maximizing of overall net good (or, some say, incompatibly, for minimizing net evils). In developments of Aquinas's moral theory such as are proposed by Grisez and Finnis, that critique is treated as an indispensable preliminary to any reflective non-question-begging identification of the route from first principles to specific moral norms.

3.4 Some examples

The three examples or sets of examples considered in this section are only examples of the kinds of moral norms ( praecepta) which Aquinas considers are excluded by any sound conscience from one's deliberations about what to choose. Other examples are more complex, such as theft and various other wrongful deprivations of property, and the form of charging for loans which is named usury and judged by Aquinas (not implausibly, though with little direct applicability to developed financial markets: see Finnis 1998, 204-210) to be always contrary to just equality. Aquinas also treats in some detail scores, indeed hundreds of other moral issues, touching the life of judges, advocates, merchants, the rich, the poor, or everyone.

3.4.1 Homicide

Some types of act are intrinsically and immediately contrary to the basic human good of life, that is to a human being's very being. Every act which is intended, whether as end or as means, to kill an innocent human being, and every act done by a private person which is intended to kill any human being, is to be excluded from deliberation as wrongful because contrary to love of neighbor as self (or self as neighbor). Public persons, Aquinas thinks, can rightfully intend to kill in carrying out needful acts of war, suppression of serious wrongdoing, and punishment (see also 6.3 below).

3.4.2 Adultery and other kinds of act contrary to the good of marriage

As in ours, many in Aquinas' milieu found it difficult to understand how mutually agreeable sex could be a serious moral issue, or indeed a moral issue at all. Aquinas noted this, but was clear that every kind of conduct that acts out and thus confirms and reinforces a disposition of will contra bonum matrimonii is seriously wrong because so many aspects of individual and social flourishing profoundly depend upon the health of the institution of marriage, as it exists in the real lives of adults and children. It is worth repeating, since the point is so often misunderstood and misreported, that Aquinas' moral arguments for distinguishing good from bad sex never run from "natural" to "therefore good/reasonable/right", but always from "good/reasonable/right" to therefore "natural" (and similarly, of course, for unreasonable and unnatural): see II-II q. 153 a. 2c, a. 3c, q. 154 a. 1c, a. 2 ad 2, a. 11.

3.4.3 Lying

3.4.4 Exceptionless negative norms: more urgent though not all or always more important

Only negative norms can be exceptionless (and not all negative moral norms are). If affirmative norms could be exceptionless, there would be inescapable conflicts of obligation, but since morality is simply (the set of standards of) full reasonableness, there can be no conflict of duties each truly and inescapably obligatory in one and the same situation: one cannot truly be perplexus simpliciter - that is, in a dilemma such that, through no fault of one's own, any choice one makes will be immoral. (It is, however, possible that my prior wrongful choices or my culpable negligence in forming my conscience put me into a situation such that I have applicable and irreconcilable duties and will be in breach of one or more of them whatever I choose or do or omit: I am then perplexus secundum quid, that is, in a dilemma but of a qualified, derivative kind, only in a weak sense unavoidable.)

4. Virtues

A virtue is an aspect of, or constitutive element in, being a person of good character. To have the virtues is to have a stable and ready willingness to make choices that are morally good because in line with the bonum rationis, the basic good of practical reasonableness.

4.1 Specified by principles identifying the reasonable "mean"

Aquinas arranged the Summa Theologiae 's exposition of morality within a classification, not of the goods to which rational acts are directed, nor of types of act, nor of practical reason's standards, but of the virtues. Explicable as a reflective theological project of depicting the flourishing or deviations of human beings in an account of the whole movement of creature from their origin to their fulfillment, his decision to adopt this superstructure has tended to obscure the real foundations of his ethics. As one would expect from the considerations sketched in the preceding paragraph, his actual arguments about what is right and wrong, virtuous or vicious, get their premises not from analysis of the virtues at stake but rather from the principles and more specific standards, norms, precepts or rules of practical reason(ableness). It is the conclusions of these arguments that are then re-expressed in terms of what is contrary to or in line with one or more of the virtues.

4.2 Virtue can also be a source, rather than conclusion, of moral judgment

One's affirmative responsibilities are all conditioned by circumstances, and mostly are (conditional) implications of the Golden Rule of doing to or for others what you would wish them to do to or for you. For both these reasons, one cannot make sound judgments about what one should be doing - that is, about what is the "mean" of reasonableness - unless one's wishes are those of a person who understands the opportunities and the circumstances well, and whose concerns and intentions are those of someone whose reasonableness is not corrupted or deflected either by sub-rational desires and aversions or by deformations of will such as pride or presumption. Such a person has the virtues, intellectual and moral, and virtue is thus, and in these respects, required for sound moral judgment. Sometimes the mean of reason, properly assessed by someone of true virtue, calls for heroic virtue (say, immense courage) far beyond conventional measures or expectations of reasonableness, moderation, and the like.

4.2.1 The interdependence of the virtues

4.3 Virtue's priority not reducible to self-fulfillment

4.4 The cardinal virtues

4.4.1 Prudentia and love

Practical reasonableness involves not only (i) an intelligent and rationally integrated understanding of practical reason's principles and of the implications that, under the auspices of the master principle of love of neighbor as self, they have in the form of moral standards, but also (ii) the personal self-governance needed to put those conscientious judgments into effect by choices and corresponding action. So prudentia has many phases or, as Aquinas says, parts, and enters into every other virtue. It is far removed from "prudence" in the sense of "rational self-interest", for by prudentia one is actively aware that self-interest is self-stunting or indeed self-destructive unless one transcends it by one's dispositions and acts of justice and friendship or love. (And see 2.7 above.)

Although Aquinas subscribes to Aristotle's thesis that practical reasonableness ( phronesis, prudentia) concerns means rather than ends, he eliminates any quasi-Humeian reading of that thesis by emphasizing that what "moves" prudentia is not one's passions but one's underivative understanding of the first practical principles and of the intelligible goods to which they point ( synderesis movet prudentiam: ST II-II q. 47 a. 6 ad 3). Moreover, since he holds that virtually all means are also ends, the Aristotelian thesis in no way inhibits him from holding that prudentia is what guides one in identifying moral standards and the "mean" of every virtue: prudentia "directs the moral virtues not only in choosing means but also in establishing ends": I-II q. 66 a. 3 ad 3.

4.4.2 Justice

Justice is the steady and lasting willingness to give to others what they are entitled to (their right: jus [or ius] suum). Aquinas works with this Roman Law definition ( ST II-II q. 58 a. 1c), and with Aristotle's division of justice into (i) distributive (good judgment about how to divide up and parcel out beneficial or burdensome wholes or sets in a way that is fair because guided by appropriate criteria) and (ii) what Aquinas calls commutative justice (good judgment going far wider than Aristotle's "corrective" justice, and concerned with all other kinds of dealings between persons). His prioritizing of the concept of right ( jus), conceived as something that belongs to another, brings him to the brink of articulating a concept of human rights, a concept certainly implicit in his thesis that there are precepts of justice each imposing, on me and my communities, a duty to everyone without discrimination ( indifferenter omnibus debitum: ST II-II q. 122 a. 6). For his definition of justice immediately entails that correlative to such duties of justice there must be rights that belong to everyone indifferenter. Many duties of justice are positive (affirmative duties to give, do, etc.), and Aquinas treats the duties of relieving poverty both under justice and under love (of neighbor, for God's sake). The duties in either case are essentially the same, and Aquinas' understanding of them strongly affects his understanding of justified private property rights, which are valid because needed for prosperity and development, but are subject to a duty to distribute, directly or indirectly, one's superflua - that is, everything beyond what one needs to keep oneself and one's family in the state of life appropriate to one's (and their) vocation(s). For the natural resources of the world are "by nature" common; that is, reason's principles do not identify anyone as having a prior claim to them other than under some customary or other socially posited scheme for division and appropriation of such resources, and such schemes could not be morally authoritative unless they acknowledged some such duty to distribute one's superflua.

4.4.3 Fortitudo and temperantia

By fortitudo one keeps one's aversions, particularly but not only fear, in check lest one shirk one's moral responsibilities in situations of danger or other adversity. It is the mean between recklessness or over-boldness and cowardice or defeatism.

4.5 "Virtue ethics"

In recent decades various philosophers and theologians have proposed that ethics done well is virtue ethics, not an ethics of rules and principles. An ethics of the latter kind is denounced as legalistic. As should be clear from the foregoing, Aquinas rejects the proposed contrast and gives systematic prominence both to standards, such as principles and rules, and to virtues. He holds, in effect, that they are interdefined. Nor does he have any time for the view that there are no exceptionless moral norms and that moral norms or other standards are no more than a kind of anticipation, shadow or approximation of the judgments which in each situation need to be made by a person of virtue, and which could never exclude in advance any kind of act as always wrongful by reason of its object and regardless of its further intentions or the circumstances of the situation. On the contrary, he holds that no human act is morally good (right, in the sense of not wrong) unless it is in line with love of self and neighbor (and thus with respect for the basic aspects of the wellbeing of each and all human beings) not only (i) in the motives or intentions with which it is chosen, and (ii) in the appropriateness of the circumstances, but also (iii) in its object (more precisely the object, or closest-in intention of the choosing person) (see 2.1.1 above). This is the primary sense of the axiom he frequently articulates by quoting an old tag: bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu (good from an unflawed set of contributing factors, bad from any defect in the set). That is, there is a fundamental asymmetry between moral good and moral evil - a notion very foreign to any version of utilitarian or post-utilitarian consequentialist or "proportionalist" ethics.

5. Political community

Love of neighbor as oneself requires one to live in political community with others. For the wellbeing and right(s) of all or almost all of us are dependent upon there being in place institutions of government and law of the relatively comprehensive kind we call "political" and "state".

5.1 Common good

"Common good" is very often a safer translation of bonum commune than "the common good". For there is the common good of a team, but equally the common good of a university class, of a university, of a family, of a neighborhood, of a city, of a state, of a church and of human kind throughout the world. The difference in each case between the group's common good and an aggregate of the wellbeing of each of its members can be understood by considering how, in a real friendship, A wills B's wellbeing for B's sake, while B wills A's wellbeing for A's sake, and each therefore has reason to will his or her own wellbeing for the other's sake, with the result that neither envisages his or her own wellbeing as the source (the object) of the friendship's value, and each has in view a truly common good, not reducible to the good of either taken separately or merely summed. Inasmuch as there is possible and appropriate a kind of friendship between the members of each of the kinds of group listed (non-exhaustively) above, each such group has its own common good.

5.1.1 Groups

5.2 Political common good and political community relativized

Some of the above-listed kinds of group have, in Aquinas' view, a significance that is in a sense strategic. In particular, the family-cum-household, the political group, and the church established to transmit divine revelation and salvation each have such significance. The benefits made possible by political community, with its state government and law, are such that its common good is both extensive and intensive in its reach and implications (e.g. the legitimacy of securing it by coercion). So on those occasions when "the common good" is the best translation of bonum commune, the referent will normally be the good of the political community in question (or of political communities generically), often called by Aquinas public good.

Nevertheless, Aquinas's use of the Aristotelian axiom, "human beings are naturally political animals" almost always takes it as asserting our social, not solitary, nature - our need for interpersonal relationships both for friendship and for such necessities as food, clothing, speech, and so forth. So the axiom should not be made to mean that Aquinas thinks there is a distinct basic inclination towards, or a distinct basic good, of political community, to put alongside the distinct basic good of marriage and family. He accepts that we are naturally parts of a political community, but also that we are more naturally conjugal than political (in the narrow sense), and that political community does not properly have the ultimacy it has for Aristotle. For Aquinas, political communities have been irrevocably relativized by the appropriateness for (in principle) everyone of belonging to the Church which is, in its own way, as complete [ perfecta] a kind of community as any state.

6. The state a "complete community" with "mixed" and "limited" government

The state is a "complete community", whose members, in the central case, are also members of another "complete community", the Church. So this completeness is, in each case, relative and delimited. Correspondingly, the state's governing structures (which Aquinas does not call "the state") are - again in the central, morally proper case - limited in four distinct ways.

6.1 Four kinds of limitation on state government and law

(i) State governments and laws are subject to moral standards, especially but not only the principles and norms of justice. This does not mean that moral principles all apply to public authority in the way they do to private persons; they do not, yet there is no exemption of public authorities from the exceptionless moral norms against intentionally killing the innocent, lying, rape and other extra-marital sex, and so forth. Moreover, this limitation has no bearing on the distinct question which moral standards should, or can properly, be legally enforced by the state's government and law (see (iii) below).

(iv) The morally significant authority of the state's government and law is limited by the rights of the Church, though when that government and law are within their proper domain, one ought to comply with their directives rather than any purported act of administration or government (apart from general moral teaching) by Pope or bishops.

The last three kinds of limitation can be considered here in a little more detail.

6.2 Limited government's forms: "political" and "regal"

Aquinas sees no need for any "social contract" to explain or justify the origins of government or of any particular regime. But he does think that, even in regal as distinct from political rule, the enacted laws constitute "a kind of covenant [ pactum] between king and people" ( In Rom. 13.1 v. 6), and violation of this by the ruler can entail that subjects are released from their covenantal obligation.

6.3 State authority is neither paternalistic nor divine

This reading of Aquinas as, in a nineteenth and twentieth century jargon, "a liberal" (or "the first Whig") is often disputed, for there are statements in his writings which taken acontextually seem to assert the simpler and paternalistic Aristotelian position.

6.4 The state shares its authority with another "complete community"

One of the reasons why Aquinas' political theory departs significantly from Aristotle's is that Aquinas believes he has access to facts and considerations unavailable to Aristotle, namely to the public divine revelation completed in the works and sayings of Christ, founder of a spiritual community, the (Catholic = "universal") Church. When political life is really well-ordered, therefore, each member (citizen) of a state will be also a member of this other "complete community" and subject to its laws as well as to the state's. The function of this other community is to transmit the divine promise or offer of eternal life, and to help people help each other, through their own individual free choices, to become ready for that life. With the establishing of this community (in continuity and discontinuity with the older religious community of Israel), human associations are henceforth of two fundamentally distinct types: (i) temporal or secular, worldly, civil, or political, and (ii) spiritual. Correspondingly, responsibility for human affairs is divided between (i) secular societies, especially states and families, and (ii) the Church. The distinction between secular and spiritual tracks that between natural and revealed knowledge.

6.4.1 Non-dependence and non-subjection of secular authority

Accordingly, the Church's leaders have no jurisdiction over secular matters, although they can declare that the choice of a member of the Church, albeit in a secular matter, is seriously immoral. A parent has no jurisdiction over a child's free choices except in so far as they violate the moral rights of other members of the family or the parents' responsibility for the child's education and moral upbringing. State government and law have no right to direct the Church's leaders, or its members in their religious affairs, except in so far as the state's peace and justice would otherwise be violated. "In those matters which pertain to political good [ bonum civile], secular rather than spiritual authority should be obeyed." Sent. II d. 44 ex. ad 4.

Neither those who adhere to the old, incomplete revelation (Jews), nor those people and peoples who simply do not accept the truth of the full revelation, are subject to the authority of the Church. Nor is the legitimacy and authority of a government negated by the fact that its members (officials) are unbelievers.

Beyond this, Aquinas works within the constitutional assumptions of the Christendom of his era. His positions imply that if ecclesiastical authorities expel members from the Church for their misdeeds as rulers, the consequences under their particular state's own constitutional arrangement could include the rulers' deposition (loss of secular legal authority); but Aquinas blurs or elides this distinction of jurisdictions, and loosely says that the Church "has the authority of curbing secular rulers" ( ST II-II q. 12 a. 2 ad 1).

6.4.2 Heresy, unbelief and religious freedom

7. Law

The best developed part of Aquinas' political theory is his account of law. That account's main features may be summarized in four propositions about the central case and focal meaning of law. It is a matter of intelligent direction addressed to the intelligence and reason of those whom it directs. It is for the common good of a political community. It is made ( positum, put in place) by the ruler(s) responsible for the community in question. It needs to be coercive.

7.1 Law is an appeal to reason

7.2 Law is for a political community's common good

The definition of law offered by Aquinas in ST I-II q. 90 a. 4 is: "an ordinance of reason for the common good of a [complete] community, promulgated by the person or body responsible for looking after that community." It is by being intended for common good that law appeals to its subjects' reason, and gives them reason for regarding the law as authoritative and obligatory, morally as well as legally. Even when its subjects or some of them would have made or preferred a different determinatio, a different way of pursuing communal benefit, the rulers' intent to promote common good supports and is supported by their claim to rulership. Only if they have such intent can they instantiate the central case of government.

7.2.1 The Rule of Law

The central case of government is the rule of a free people, and law is centrally instantiated when its fully public character (promulgation: q. 90 a. 4), and its clarity (q. 95 a.3), generality (q. 96 a. 1), stability (q. 97 a. 2), and practicability (q. 95 a. 3), enable government (law-makers and law-maintainers alike) and subjects to be partners in public reason (Aquinas has the concept though not the phrase). The features of law thus itemized by Aquinas amount to the concept of the Rule of Law, which he clearly gives a priority over the "rule of men" in his treatment of judges' subordination to legislation and of the duty of judges to adhere to law even against the evidence of their own eyes (when that evidence is not legally admissible): II-II q. 67 a. 2; q. 64 a. 6 ad 3.

7.3 Law is posited by the responsible authority

The person or body that "has the care of the community" is entitled to make laws. Aquinas treats all human law as "posited" and (synonymously) "positive", even those of its rules that are restatements of, or authoritatively promulgated deductions ( conclusiones) from, general moral principles or norms. Interpretation, too, Aquinas thinks of as involving, in the last analysis, an appeal to the legislator(s) to declare what the enacted law truly means.

The making of law by custom is not incompatible with this thesis; it amounts to a positing of law by the people, considered as having a diffused authority and responsibility for their own community.

7.4 Law needs to be coercive

It is not quite accurate to say that the state or its government has a monopoly of force, since one can justifiably use force as a citizen to defend oneself or others from an attack or assault that is not itself justified (being criminal or insane), and this requires no authorization. Still, Aquinas insistently draws a distinction between private and public use of force. Only public authority can punish or rightly engage in war, and it is reasonable for public authorities to seek a virtual monopoly on what would now be called police operations for the prevention, suppression, and detection of crime. Private persons can never rightly intend precisely to harm or kill, though they can knowingly bring about harm or death as a proportionate side-effect of intending to block an attack (3.4.1 above). Persons with public authority can, Aquinas thinks, rightly intend to kill (or injure) in the exercise of their duty to suppress the attacks of criminals, pirates, and other public or private enemies. (He does not explore those borderland or badland - "wild west" - situations where the distinction between public and private is indistinct.)

The paradigmatic public use of coercion is judicially imposed punishment, capital or otherwise. At the core of Aquinas's account of justified punishment is the notion that offenders are punishable because, in choosing to offend, they have excessively indulged their will and thereby (he implies) gained a kind of advantage over those who have retrained their own wills from such excess; a just relationship between themselves and their fellow citizens can fittingly be restored by proportionately imposing upon such offenders something contra voluntatem, contrary to and suppressive of their will: I-II q. 46 a. 6 ad 2. This restoration of a fair balance between offenders and the law-abiding is central to what Aquinas frequently calls the "medicinal" function of punishment, for the medicine of punishment is intended to heal not only offenders (by reforming them) or potential offenders (by deterring them), but also and more centrally the whole community by rectifying the disorder of injustice created by the offender's self-preferential violation of justice. On capital punishment see 3.4.1 above.

Aquinas regards as legitimate ground for going to war not only the defence of this or another political community, but also the purpose of justly punishing and/or securing compensation. (As justifiable grounds for use of force, it is difficult to distinguish between (i) defence of one's own community's (or another's) territory and constitution, (ii) the recovery or restoration of unjustly taken territory or other possessions, and (iii) exaction of compensation for unjust takings or other injuries.)

7.5 Unjust law and just revolution

If the law purports to require actions that no-one should ever do, it cannot rightly be complied with; one's moral obligation is not to obey but to disobey: ST I-II q. 96 a. 4. And if it purports to authorize such acts (e.g. rape, theft, or infanticide), its authorization is morally void and of no effect (II-II q. 57 a. 2 ad 2); courts should not guide their adjudications by such laws (II-II q. 60 a. 5 ad 1). But law's obligatoriness and authority is subject to further conditions, derived from the very nature and rationale of political authority. If the law-makers (i) are motivated not by concern for the community's common good but by greed or vanity (private motivations that make them tyrants, whatever the content of their legislation), or (ii) act outside the authority granted to them, or (iii) while acting with a view to the common good apportion the necessary burdens unfairly, their laws are unjust and in the forum of reasonable conscience are not so much laws as acts of violence [ magis sunt violentiae quam leges]: I-II q. 96 a. 4. Such laws lack moral authority, i.e. do not bind in conscience; one is neither morally obliged to conform nor morally obliged not to conform.

This conclusion is subject to a proviso or exception: laws which are unjust by reason of one or more of these three enumerated types of defect in authority sometimes create an obligation in conscience just to the extent that disobedience would cause disorder or give the kind of 'example' that leads others into wrongdoing. To avoid those sorts of unjust harm to public and private good one may have a moral obligation to forgo one's right(s) [ iuri suo debet cedere]. This obligation is not: to comply with the law according to its makers' intent, and/or to the meaning it has under the particular legal system's interpretative canons. Rather, it is a kind of collateral obligation: to avoid those acts of non-compliance that would unjustly risk having the bad side-effects of being seen not to comply.

All who govern in the interests of themselves rather than of the common good are tyrants, for that is what a tyrant is in the classical line of thought followed by Aquinas. Tyranny entails treating one's subjects as slaves - persons used for the benefit of the master. The laws of tyrants are not laws simpliciter, but rather a kind of perversion of law [ perversitas legis], and one is, in principle, entitled to treat them as one treats a bandit's demands: I-II q. 92 a 1 ad 4 & 5; II-II q. 69 a. 4. Against the regime's efforts to enforce its decrees one has the right of forcible resistance; as a private right this could extend as far as killing the tyrant as a foreseen side-effect of one's legitimate self-defence. It is the tyrant rather than the subject who is morally guilty of sedition. If one can associate with others to constitute oneself with them a kind of public authority willing and able to assume responsibility for the common good of the state, one is entitled, in Aquinas' view, to set about overthrowing, and if need be executing, the tyrant, with a view to the liberatio of the people [ multitudinis] and the homeland [ patriae]. Since rulers who are not tyrants are entitled to hunt down and most severely punish sedition, and both rulers and subjects may fall into error about each other's moral status, subjects ought to be slow to judge a tyranny so unjust that overthrowing or forcibly resisting it is fair to those likely to be injured as a side-effect of revolutionary struggle; there is a (defeasible) presumption in favor of acquiescence and merely passive disobedience: II-II q. 42 a. 2 ad 3, q. 104 a. 6 ad 3; II Sent. d. 44 q. 2 a. 2; Reg. 1.6.

Bibliography

A. Works of Thomas Aquinas

[Eth] Sententia Libri Ethicorum (Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics) [1271-2].

[Mal] Quaestiones Disputatae de Malo (Disputed Questions on Evil) [1269-71].

[Reg] De Regno [or De Regimine Principum] ad regem Cyprum (On Government [or Kingship] [orOn the Rule of Princes/Political Leaders] to the King of Cyprus) [c. 1265].

[ScG] Summa contra Gentiles (A Treatise against the Unbelievers) [?1259-65].

[Sent] Scriptum super Libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardiensis (A Commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences [Collection of Opinions of the Church Fathers]) [1253-7]. Note that this remains untranslated save in small excerpts.

[ST] Summa Theologiae (A Treatise on Theology), Parts I [1265-8], I-II [1271-2], II-II [c.1271], III [1272-3].

[Ver] Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate (Disputed Questions about Truth) [1256-9].

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Kries, Douglas, 1990, "Thomas Aquinas and the Politics of Moses", Review of Politics, 52: 1-21.

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MacDonald, Scott, and Stump, Eleonore (eds.), 1998, Aquinas's Moral Theory: Essays in Honor of Norman Kretzmann, Ithaca: Cornell University Press (essays by a number of contemporary scholars).

McInerny, Ralph, 1980, "The Principles of Natural Law", American Journal of Jurisprudence, 25: 1-15.

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Pakaluk, Michael, 2001. "Is the Common Good of Political Society Limited and Instrumental?", Review of Metaphysics, 55: 57-94.

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---, 2012, "Practical Reason, Human Nature, and the Epistemology of Ethics", Villanova Law Review, 57(5): 873-88.

Stump, Eleonore, 2003, Aquinas, London: Routledge.

Wheatley, Anthony Paul, 2015, "In Defence of Neo-Scholastic Ethics: A Critique of Finnis and Grisez's New Natural Law Theory", Ph.D. thesis, Manchester, University of Manchester, available online.

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Aquinas' Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy

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Aquinas' moral and political philosophy has to be reconstructed from his theological treatises and commentaries and his commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and the first two and half books of Aristotle's Politics. Its proper interpretation has been a matter of some difficulty from the time of his death in 1274.

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Consciousness & the Brain: John Searle at TEDxCERN

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Browse all Documentaries radio shows, podcasts and mixes in BBC Sounds. See what's new, what's popular, or browse by a-z.

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Read the Arts sections of magazines and newspapers

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Read the Arts sections of magazines and newspapers

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Explore all newsletters

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Culture news, comment, video and pictures from The Guardian

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Blackfriars 300 metres from the South exit; 800 metres from the North exit.
Cannon Street 1,000 metres approx
London Bridge 1,100 metres approx.
Waterloo 1,280 metres approx.

Check TFL before you travel for any changes to their services.

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Blackfriars 300 metres from the South exit; 800 metres from the North exit.Cannon Street 1,000 metres approxLondon Bridge 1,100 metres approx.Waterloo 1,280 metres approx. Check TFL before you travel for any changes to their services.

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The Design Museum is a multifaceted museum, an ever-changing space for the public, industry and education to come together and explore new ideas. Located in London, it's the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form.

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Discover 10 of the World's Zaniest Buildings - Google Arts & Culture

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Explore what happens when architects rip up the rule book

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Classical Art Research Centre - Beazley Archive

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The Classical Art Research Centre (CARC), created out of the Beazley Archive is one of the strategic research units of the Oxford University Faculty of Classics. The Beazley Archive contains the world’s biggest photographic archive devoted to ancient Greek figure-decorated pottery.

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ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World

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Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society.

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Explore the 16+ (KS5) schools programme.

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Our learning programme provides exciting opportunities for everyone to explore, question and celebrate architecture.

Our programme is inspired by the work of our members - past and present - and draws on our world-class collection of more than four million items. Our online and hands-on creative workshops and courses support learners of all ages and experiences in understanding how the spaces and places in which they live, learn, work and play come to be.

By investigating architecture through discussions, making art, and using digital media in real-world contexts, our programme encourages learners to think critically and test the bounds of their creativity.

Architecture matters to all of us and our programme aims to make it accessible to everyone.

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Our learning programme provides exciting opportunities for everyone to explore, question and celebrate architecture. Our programme is inspired by the work of our members - past and present - and draws on our world-class collection of more than four million items. Our online and hands-on creative workshops and courses support learners of all ages and experiences in understanding how the spaces and places in which they live, learn, work and play come to be.

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There are ten literary excerpts that you can read in just ten minutes.

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Classic literature: Reading between the lines

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Classic literature: Reading between the lines

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From Moby Dick to the Moomins, exploring the books that captured the world's imagination

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BBC World Service - The Forum, Classic literature: Reading between the lines

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From Moby Dick to the Moomins, exploring the books that captured the world's imagination

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Don't tempt me with a good time.

My final courtesy will be closing the door on my way out.

I can't leave if I never arrived.

I mopped the floor with my sweat and it wasn't enough.

They say that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

I am familiar with rot.

Your grammar rules have taken years off my life.

Terror is incredibly pedantic.

No one can protect me from myself.

This country is like a husband. Its wayward children are always my fault.

My children will not come with me.

They have nothing to go back to.

The years have swallowed me.

I am like a congealed clump tethered to the sole of a boot.

I am grateful for the exposure to your superior values and asbestos.

I am grateful for what kills me.

If you paid me to leave, I would kiss your hands.

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The Poetry Society - Connecting you to the transformative power of poetry

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Don't tempt me with a good time. My final courtesy will be closing the door on my way out. I can't leave if I never arrived. I mopped the floor with my sweat and it wasn't enough. They say that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

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Join us for transporting exhibitions, events with a host of world-class speakers and inspiring workshops for families.

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Each lecture in this series focuses on a single play by Shakespeare, and employs a range of different approaches to try to understand a central critical question about it.

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Southampton Universities Codebreaking Competition

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Skip to main content

The School of Mathematical Sciences presents the 19th National Cipher Challenge

In the lead up to WWII the British intelligence services were flooded with reports of Nazi spies and sympathisers. With war fast approaching and limited resources the task of vetting all these reports was passed to a fledgling security organisation known as BOSS. As a new recruit you are given the job of decoding the secret messages that will expose the enemy agents. It is a race against time and your country needs you ...

Login / register Go to Challenges

Latest News

THIS WAS THE FIRST BOSS PUZZLE THIS YEAR WITH A BOSS RATING OF 4. Maybe you found it easier than Harry, and if so, hat tip to you! Either way, we hope you enjoyed it! In the completed puzzle the numbers 0 through 9 appear in each of the top six rows of the grid so that they give the column sums at the bottom and no number appears in twice in adjacent cells, including diagonal adjacency.

Read on

BOSS PUZZLE CHALLENGE 8 - open until Sunday 13th Dec 9am

ANOTHER GREAT GRID PUZZLE FROM OUR GUEST PUZZLEMASTER THE LETTER WRIGGLER, whose identity, like those of all our officers and agents, is a closely guarded secret. TLW first became interested in ciphers after reading Simon Singh's The Code Book in 1998. He found the now NCC web page way back in the early 2000's and has enjoyed every years session since, but until 2019 he remained a 'lurker' never registering (because it was for schools only and did not think [...]

Read on

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Skip to main content The School of Mathematical Sciences presents the 19th National Cipher Challenge In the lead up to WWII the British intelligence services were flooded with reports of Nazi spies and sympathisers. With war fast approaching and limited resources the task of vetting all these reports was passed to a fledgling security organisation known as BOSS.

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The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students.
It is organized in over 60 countries and designed to get students all over the world excited about computing.
Last November over 365,000 students took part in the UK, and over 3 million worldwide.
Each participant answer questions that focus on computational and logical thinking.
It is completed online in your own school.

What teachers say about the challenge:
"I just want to say how much the children are enjoying this competition. It is the first year we have entered, and I have students aged 8 to 11 participating in my Computing lessons, with some of our older students also taking on the challenges. It is really helping to challenge their thinking, and they are showing great determination to try and complete each task! Also fantastic to find something that works on our iPads, as most puzzles of this kind are flash based."

"Our students completed the challenge this morning, I just wanted to say thank you for running this. It's a brilliant idea!"

2023 Bebras Statistics

* As this is a challenge, the majority of older students are not expected to solve all of the problems in 40 minutes!
** Students in the top 10% of each age group indicated are invited via their school to enter OUCC.
*** Qualifying SVI students can take part in the normal Seniors and Elite OUCC Challenge or the beta OUCC SVI (10-14) challenge. The beta SVI challenge will use the same style as Seniors but with more age-appropriate questions.

The Challenge is available for the following age groups:

* Kits and Castors can enter individually or as a small team (up to 4)

Anyone within these groups can participate; it does not matter if they are language students or born mathematicians! The questions only require thinking skills.

The aim of the Challenges:

Solve as many problems as you can in 40 minutes.
You are not expected to finish!

The problems come in three levels of difficulty: A, B and C.
The "A" problems are the easiest. "C" problems the hardest.
You can find a problem's difficulty in the problem overview before you click on it.
The difficulty of a problem determines how it will be scored.

The scoring rules are as follows:

Our Carbon Footprint:

Our computing based system requires no paper to be posted between schools and our offices as everything is done electronically. The data centre that hosts UK Bebras obtains its electricity from wind farms. When the wind doesn't blow the energy comes from the grid but when it does blow there is more than enough for the servers and the excess is returned to the grid. The net result is that UK Bebras is using 100% wind energy overall. The heat from cooling the servers, when everyone is beavering away, is used to heat buildings in the neighbourhood.

[ terms and conditions | privacy policy | info@bebras.uk ]

© 2018 - 2023 UK Bebras

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The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students. It is organized in over 60 countries and designed to get students all over the world excited about computing.Last November over 365,000 students took part in the UK, and over 3 million worldwide.Each participant answer questions that focus on computational and logical thinking.It is completed online in your own school.

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If you’d like to extend your programming knowledge, you could complete some programming puzzles

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Visit the Horniman Museum to see the instrument collections

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Visit the Horniman Museum to see the instrument collections

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An inspiring, surprising, family-friendly, free Museum and Gardens in south London. The Horniman connects us all with global cultures and the natural environment, encouraging us to shape a positive future.

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BBC Languages - Learn Spanish in your own time and have fun with Spanish TV. How to watch Spanish TV online, tips for getting the most out of it, and a guide to channels and programmes

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Welcome to the club! The Oxford Online Maths Club is a weekly livestream from the University of Oxford with maths problems, puzzles, mini-lectures, and Q&A. It's free, interactive, casual, and relaxed, and the livestreams are recorded so that you can watch back afterwards if you can't make it to the live broadcast on Thursday afternoons. The club is mostly aimed at people about to apply to university or about to start a Maths course, but everyone's welcome and there's no registration needed. Whether you're the only person you know who's interested in mathematics, or if you're an entire sixth-form maths club looking for more maths content, we're here for you.

Our regular host is Dr James Munro (admissions and outreach coordinator for Maths at Oxford), and we often have current Oxford students answering questions in chat and appearing on the livestream to talk about maths. In some of the episodes we tackle tricky maths problems, in some of them we explore one maths topic in more detail, and in some of them we have a current Oxford student or member of staff on the livestream to talk about a bit of maths they love.

(Almost) every episode comes with some further reading notes for you to explore the topics we cover in the livestream in more depth. If you're looking for super-curricular mathematics (perhaps you're looking for an EPQ topic, or you're trying to explore maths beyond the classroom before applying to university), then this should be a good place to start. Click on "Further Reading" under any episode on this page to see these notes.

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Welcome to the club! The Oxford Online Maths Club is a weekly livestream from the University of Oxford with maths problems, puzzles, mini-lectures, and Q&A. It's free, interactive, casual, and relaxed, and the livestreams are recorded so that you can watch back afterwards if you can't make it to the live broadcast on Thursday afternoons.

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Plus! online magazine exploring the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics.

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Plus! online magazine exploring the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics.

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Don't like plant-based meat alternatives, but want to spare animals and the environment? There's hope on the horizon, aided by a good helping of maths.

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Explore the NRICH website for games, activities, problems and solutions

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The Nrich Maths Project Cambridge,England. Mathematics resources for children,parents and teachers to enrich learning. Problems,children’s solutions,interactivities,games,articles.

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Tom is a Mathematician at the University of Oxford where he holds the position of Early Career Teaching and Outreach Fellow at St Edmund Hall and Public Engagement Lead at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

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Videos about numbers and mathematics

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Finding your first job in the arts can feel like a daunting task. However, having the right tools and techniques, and asking the right questions, can make the process far less overwhelming.

Join us for a morning of free in-person careers talks and workshops to help you stand out from the crowd as you prepare to enter a career in the art world.

Hosted at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London's Bedford Square, this Association for Art History event will kick off with a panel discussion of industry experts and recent career starters sharing their insights on how to break into the field. This will be followed by two skills workshops, giving you the opportunity to hone your CV and craft your personal 'elevator pitch' while gaining feedback from your peers.

This event is ideal for current students of art history as well as recent graduates and those transitioning from another field. It follows on from the Association of Art History's recent online events on Careers in the Art Market.

Speakers and facilitators include:

Diana Ewer, Head of Careers, Sotheby's Institute of Art, London

Christina Bradstreet, Head of Programmes, Association for Art History

Eugenia Lori, Account Executive at Artlogic

Neil Graham-Wigan, Graduate: MA: Fine, Decorative Art and Design, Sotheby's Institute

Oliver Peterson Gilbert, Senior Lecturer in Art History and Social Theory, Sotheby's Institute of Art

Simone Mizova, Sales Co-ordinator, 19th Century British and European Art, Christie's
What to bring?
· Bring a copy of your current CV.

· Mature students should bring a student ID card or other proof of their student status
Safeguarding
Students aged 17-18 years-old may attend unaccompanied. Young people aged 16 or under must attend with a parent or guardian.

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a foot in the door: practical advice for starting your career in the arts

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a foot in the door: practical advice for starting your career in the arts tickets

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a foot in the door: practical advice for starting your career in the arts london

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a foot in the door: practical advice for starting your career in the arts london tickets

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A foot in the door: Practical Advice for Starting Your Career in the Arts

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Eventbrite - Association for Art History presents A foot in the door: Practical Advice for Starting Your Career in the Arts - Saturday, 3 February 2024 at Sotheby's Institute of Art, London, England. Find event and ticket information.

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Listen to a range of musical genres through BBC Sounds.

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Listen to a range of musical genres through BBC Sounds.

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Listen to a range of different musical genres through BBC Sounds. You can also access a range of podcasts and features on the different genres.

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Listen without limits, with BBC Sounds. Catch the latest music tracks, discover binge-worthy podcasts, or listen to radio shows - all whenever you want.

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Are you aged 11 to 18? Do you like to sing? Would you like to find out more about singing at Cambridge University?

The Cambridge Choral Experience takes place over a weekend in June every year and provides a day of activities designed to give secondary-school students a taste of what singing at Cambridge might be like, as well as generating enthusiasm generally around music and singing.

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Are you aged 11 to 18? Do you like to sing? Would you like to find out more about singing at Cambridge University?
The Cambridge Choral Experience takes place over a weekend in June every year and provides a day of activities designed to give secondary-school students a taste of what singing at Cambridge might be like, as well as generating enthusiasm generally around music and singing.

The Cambridge Choral Experience 2023

The 2023 Cam Choral Experience will take place over the weekend of 24 June (school years 7 to 9) and 25 June (school years 10 to 13).

The morning will consist of vocal workshops, repertoire sessions, and admissions talks.

In the afternoon there will be a chance to take a walking tour of the city and Colleges with current student singers (plenty of time to ask questions about what it's really like to sing at Cambridge!) followed by a final rehearsal and performance to friends and family in one of Cambridge's magnificent College chapels, finishing by 17:00.

Refreshments and lunch are provided, and the day is free-of-charge to participants.

The day is open to state-educated students only, aged 11 to 18.

To apply, please fill out this application form. The deadline for receipt of applications is 15 May 2023. If you have any queries, please contact the Choral Awards Co-ordinator.

We look forward to welcoming you to Cambridge!

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The Cambridge Choral Experience Are you aged 11 to 18? Do you like to sing? Would you like to find out more about singing at Cambridge University?

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NATURAL SCIENCES

WORKBOOK

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Skip to main content

Now extended
Step into an East End tailor's and a Carnaby Street boutique at the height of the Swinging Sixties, where every stitch tells a unique story.

Explore more Delve into fascinating stories of Londoners through videos, articles and more

VIEW ALL

Be the first to hear about new exhibitions and events

Donate to the museum to help us tell the extraordinary story of London and its people - past, present and future

Donate now

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Museum of London Docklands | Free museum in London

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Discover how the docks transformed London and made the city we know today at the Museum of London Docklands, near Canary Wharf.

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The Museum entrance is on Bartholomew Lane, on the eastern edge of the Bank of England. You can't access the museum through the main Bank entrance. The museum is open Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, last entry 4.30pm (22 and 29 December 10am-1pm) and is free to visit.

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LSE Lecture: "Too much Maths, too little History: The problem of Economics"

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LSE Lecture: "Too much Maths, too little History: The problem of Economics"

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"Too much Maths, too little History: The problem of Economics"

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A national competition run by Royal Holloway that tests knowledge and understanding of psychology concepts.

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The competition

We run a national Psychology competition for schools, enabling Year 12 students to pit their psychology skills against pupils from across the UK.

Students may want to look at findings from psychological studies, think about the implications of a psychological theory, or approach it completely differently. It's an opportunity for you to showcase your understanding of Psychology.

Date for the 2021 psychology competition TBC - please check back here for further details shortly.

Rules and Regulations

Teachers can register a maximum of three teams of 2 to 5 students from your school.

To enter the competition, students answer the competition question with a three-minute video (submission date TBC) and a corresponding poster.

Rules and regulations from the 2020 competition can be found here.

The competition question

The competition question for 2021 will be announced in the Autumn term 2020.

Registration

Registration for this year's competition is now closed. Registration for the 2021 competition will open at the end of the Autumn term 2020.

Please note that team places for this event fill up fast and registration is first-come, first-serve. Please check back at a later date for further information. If you are an A-level teacher and would like to be added to our mailing list to be sent immediate updates about event registration dates, please email Dr Luke Kendrick ( luke.kendrick@rhul.ac.uk).

The prizes

For the past 4 years our competition event has been generously sponsored by Oxford University Press (OUP). The OUP provided £100 of book vouchers to the winning school and £75 book vouchers to the two runner-up schools. Winning team members also received a share of £100 in gift vouchers, courtesy of the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London.

Previous winners

Our 2020 competition theme was "How can psychology help us to understand current events?". Watch the video from the winning team from Lady Eleanor Holles School below.

Our 2019 competition theme was: "How can psychology be used to promote equality and greater acceptance of diversity?" Watch the winning video from Dame Alice Owens School here.

Our 2018 competition theme was "How can Psychology make the world a better place for future generations?" Watch the winning video from Hugh Baird College here.

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The competition We run a national Psychology competition for schools, enabling Year 12 students to pit their psychology skills against pupils from across the UK. Students may want to look at findings from psychological studies, think about the implications of a psychological theory, or approach it completely differently.

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Visit the Wellcome collection website to find out about current exhibitions e.g Exhibition on Bedlam (a history of mental health) at the Wellcome Trust.

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Video Tour of 'Jason and the Adventure of 254'

Artist Jason Wilsher-Mills takes us on a short tour of 'Jason and the Adventure of 254', his largest and most personal commission to date. Jason talks about his influences and shares the story behind some of his key works, including 'Figure in a Bed' and 'Calliper Boots'.

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Visit our free museum and library in central London connecting science, medicine, life and art. Explore our exhibitions, live events, gallery tours and café. Fully accessible.

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https://www.freud.org.uk/

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Freud Museum London - The Home of Sigmund Freud

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The Freud Museum London. The final home of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, and daughter Anna Freud, pioneering child psychoanalyst

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7 London Psychotherapy Museums to Explore

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7 London Psychotherapy Museums to Explore

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This website and its content is copyright of Harley Therapy Ltd. - © 2006-2023 https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/. All rights reserved.

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Last reviewed by Sheri Jacobson May 6, 2014 Counselling

London, psychotherapy, and a good day out - who knew? The city hosts an eclectic range of museums exploring the development of psychoanalysis, psychology, and related disciplines, as well as the history of London psychotherapy practitioners.

Here are six places to visit on your next trip to London that can broaden your understanding of mental health, mental illness and mental care.
(20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3)
This is without doubt the must-see when it comes to London psychotherapy museums. "A fascinating cult site, a place of mythic memory, a shrine, a monument, a haunted house," so begins Marina Warner's introduction to the Freud Museum in Hampstead.

Sigmund Freud always had a penchant for London, in spite of "the fog and rain, the drunkenness and conservatism" not to mention (still in his own words!) "the many peculiarities of the English character". It was, however, in the most traumatic of circumstances that the father of psychoanalysis landed in the capital in 1938, escaping the clutches of Nazi Austria.

Soon after arriving in London, Freud settled at 20 Maresfield Gardens, and it was in these brick, revivalist-style surroundings (which Ernst, his youngest son, helped to renovate) that he was to spend the last year of his life. It was here, too, that Freud's daughter Anna practised as an analyst for over four decades after her father's death.

Even as he struggled with cancer, Freud opened Maresfield Gardens not just to fellow analysts (such as Melanie Klein) but also to figures from the world of literature (Leonard and Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells) and art (notably Salvador Dali).
Although the museum may well be a "shrine" for some, it also energetically reflects the liveliness of Freud's mind. Visitors can admire the outstanding collections of books, paintings, antiquities, rugs and furniture that dominate every corner of the house. And Freud's consulting room - and, yes, his couch - are still in situ, objects of awe and wonder that feel so familiar somehow.

The Freud Museum also hosts conferences and courses on a regular basis, so do check their website for further details.
(Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3)
Despite its Kent address, the Bethlem Royal Hospital is found in the London suburb of Bromley. Founded in 1247, it is one of the world's oldest institutions dedicated to caring for people with mental health difficulties.

Bethlem's first home was on the site of what is now Liverpool Street Station, which (some might say) seems appropriate, given that the hospital's nickname - Bedlam (a "colloquial contraction" of Bethlem) - is a byword for pandemonium. Bethlem remained in Bishopsgate for 400 years until moving to Moorfields and then on again, in 1815, to Southwark. But that building metamorphosed into the Imperial War Museum when Bethlem upped sticks again in 1930.

Bethlem's current home in this south-eastern suburb of London is a modern campus. It's a world away from the days when the hospital was a central feature of the capital's tourist trail, with visitors paying to goggle at the "lunaticke people" and "people that bee distraught in wits". Long gone, too, are the once-celebrated stone figures (by Caius Gabriel Cibber) known as "Raving Madness" and "Melancholy" that adorned the gates of the institution in the 17th century.

Bethlem now houses a small museum that investigates the hospital's extraordinary history, as well as a gallery that boasts a renowned collection of art designed "to showcase the inspirational talents of artists who have experienced mental health difficulties".
(1 Lambeth High Street SE1)
Ever wonder what help was offered by doctors to mental health sufferers before the advent of psychotherapy? Well why not see the original 'tools of the trade' first hand on display at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society - bleeding bowl, anyone? (Inducing blood from a patient thought to "restore balance"). Or how about some powdered rock crystal for that melancholy?

Established in 1842, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum has a collection of around 45,000 objects to do with the history of healthcare, and their display on "Melancholia and Mania" covers treatment from the Middle Ages onwards.

Intrigued? You can learn more from their online guide to Melancholia and Mania.
(112A Shirland Road London W9)
The home of the British Psychoanalytical Society since 1924, the Institute not only trains psychoanalysts it holds weekly public lectures and events (go to their special event site for info, Beyond the Couch) and is known for its library.

The library of the British Psychoanalytical Society houses one of the most notable collections of psychoanalytic material in the world. There are nearly 22,000 volumes that date from the mid 19th Century to the present day. They own books from the private collections of Ernest Jones, James Strachey and Donald Winnicott.

(183 Euston Road, NW1)
One of the best free museums in London housing one of the most well known medical-related collections in the world, the Wellcome Museum is bound to amuse and fascinate. It all began with Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), a pharmacist, philanthropist, and collector whose passion for all things medicine led him to collect over 1 million objects!

The museum's subject matter is not focussed on the mind but rather the connections between medicine, life and art. But there are often exhibits related to the brain and neuroscience, so it's always worth a check.

If that doesn't appeal to a psychology fan, the famous Wellcome Library certainly will. Not only does it possess important archives and manuscripts (with material on and about Jung, Klein and Bowlby), it also promotes informal "insight sessions" on the history of medicine and offers well reputed tours.
(1 Wimpole Street, W1)
Speaking of libraries, the Royal Society holds The Diamond Collection, a unique collection of 22 photographs of psychiatric patients. It also offers access to databases that cover psychological practises and research from 1806 onwards.

(Exhibition Road, South Kensington SW7)
The Science Museum sometimes holds exhibits based around the human mind, most recently one called "Mind Maps" examining the last 250 years of psychology.

The Science Museum also has a rich permanent collection of objects related to the world of mental health and illness so it's worth a poke about.

Events about Psychology and the Mind in and Around London

Very keen to deepen your knowledge of the human psyche? The capital also boasts a vibrant agenda of exhibitions and events. It pays to check the websites of the venues listed above as well as checking London's guide to what's on, Time Out.
Enjoyed one of the above venues and want to share your experience? Or know of something to do with London psychotherapy venues we've missed? Comment below, we love hearing from you!

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7 London Psychotherapy Museums and Libraries to Explore - Harley Therapy™ Blog

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Last reviewed by Sheri Jacobson May 6, 2014 Counselling London, psychotherapy, and a good day out - who knew? The city hosts an eclectic range of museums exploring the development of psychoanalysis, psychology, and related disciplines, as well as the history of London psychotherapy practitioners.

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Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

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2023 Essay Competition | John Locke Institute

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The Global Neuroscience Competition for Teens

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2024 IBB NextGen

Starting in 2024, the IBB will host two annual events - a virtual World Championship and a subsequent new in-person Champions event (IBB NextGen). The top five winners of the 2023 IBB World Championship will participate in the inaugural NextGen event at the FENS Forum in Vienna, Austria, in June 2024.

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Starting in 2024, the IBB will host two annual events - a virtual World Championship and a subsequent new in-person Champions event (IBB NextGen). The top five winners of the 2023 IBB World Championship will participate in the inaugural NextGen event at the FENS Forum in Vienna, Austria, in June 2024.

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Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behaviour and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.

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Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.

Latest Episodes:

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Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode.

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Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links.

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Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world. Our work, led by Host and Executive Editor Shankar Vedantam, is marked by a commitment to scientific and journalistic rigor, and a deep empathy for our guests and audience.

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An exploration of the human mind and mental health, featuring insightful interviews and discussions with experts from various parts of the subject.

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The show with the latest evidence on psychology, mental health and neuroscience.

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What makes us tick? These TED Talks -- from psychologists and journalists, doctors and patients -- share the latest research on why we do what we do.

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A concise publication by the British Psychological Society (BPS) that provides insightful summaries and analysis of the latest research and developments in the field of psychology

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The British Psychological Society is a charity registered in England and Wales, Registration Number : 229642 and a charity registered in Scotland, Registration Number : SC039452 - VAT Registration Number : 283 2609 94

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Oxford Mathematics Alphabet - Here you will find members of the Oxford Mathematical Institute writing about engaging mathematical ideas and the latest research. Posters will be available for all letters to download and print. Keep checking back to see the next instalment

The Oxford Online Maths Club - Every Thursday at 16:30 (UK time), the Oxford Online Maths Club will be livestreaming one hour of maths problems, puzzles, mini-lectures, and Q&A. It's free, interactive, casual, and relaxed, and the livestreams are recorded so that you can watch back afterwards if you're not free at 16:30 on a Thursday.

Plus magazine - Plus is an online magazine which aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics.

NRICH - run by the University of Cambridge, NRICH has a lot of problems and activities that you can access and practice.

Tom Rocks Maths! - Tom is a Mathematician at the University of Oxford. Through his different videos, he explores different areas of mathematics.

Numberphile - the largest maths education channel on YouTube with over 3 million subscribers.

Want to know more about studying at the University of Oxford and what a course here would entail? You can access the Mathematics' prospectus from the University of Oxford.

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Oxford Mathematics Alphabet - Here you will find members of the Oxford Mathematical Institute writing about engaging mathematical ideas and the latest research. Posters will be available for all letters to download and print.

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10-minute Book Club - There are ten literary excerpts that you can read in just ten minutes. Each extract has been chosen by Oxford academics, and is paired with free resources and an introduction by an expert suggesting themes or contexts to think about as you read, by yourself or in discussion with family, friends, colleagues, or anyone else you'd like to connect with.

Approaching Shakespeare Podcast - Each lecture in this series focuses on a single play by Shakespeare, and employs a range of different approaches to try to understand a central critical question about it. Rather than providing overarching readings or interpretations, the series aims to show the variety of different ways we might understand Shakespeare, the kinds of evidence that might be used to strengthen our critical analysis, and, above all, the enjoyable and unavoidable fact that Shakespeare's plays tend to generate our questions rather than answer them.

Discovering Literature brings to life the social, political and cultural context in which key works of literature were written. Enjoy digitised treasures from our collection, newly commissioned articles, short documentary films and teachers' notes.

Manga Shakespeare is a series of critically acclaimed books featuring cutting-edge manga illustrations with the abridged original text from Shakespeare. Manga is a visual medium originating from Japan, used for popular communication and education, increasingly popular in the West.

The Forum - The Forum, the BBC World Service's flagship discussion programme, brings together prominent thinkers from different disciplines and different parts of the world with the aim of creating stimulating discussion informed by highly distinct academic, artistic, and cultural perspectives.

The Forum - Classic literarture: Reading between the lines - From Moby Dick to the Moomins, the BBC's Forum explores the books that captured the world's imagination

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote "a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry". Since then, it has grown into one of Britain's most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally. Today it has more than 5,000 members worldwide and publishes The Poetry Review.

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English Language and Literature Super Curricular Resources

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10-minute Book Club - There are ten literary excerpts that you can read in just ten minutes. Each extract has been chosen by Oxford academics, and is paired with free resources and an introduction by an expert suggesting themes or contexts to think about as you read, by yourself or in discussion with family, friends, colleagues, or anyone else you'd like to connect with.

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Overheard at the National Geographic Podcast

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Overheard at the National Geographic Podcast

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How are scientists cracking the mystery of elephant communication? And now that there are 8 billion humans, how is the Earth changing? Plus, how do National Geographic Explorers relate to the Soul of Music?

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Tracking snow leopards in the Himalaya. Looking for ancient microbial life on Mars. Uncovering the truth about Amazon warriors. Unraveling a mapmaker's dangerous decision. Join us for curiously delightful conversations, overheard at National Geographic headquarters. Hosted by Peter Gwin and Amy Briggs.

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Economics and Management Super Curricular Resources

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Economics and Management Super Curricular Resources

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50 things that made the modern economy - From the BBC, Tim Harford tells the fascinating stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world.

Core-Econ - An open-access platform for anyone who wants to understand the economics of innovation, inequality, environmental sustainability, and more

The Economist has been published since September 1843 to take part "in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress". This mission continues to guide their coverage: they publish it every week in the newspaper.

Economics of Climate Change - Dr Elizabeth Harnett, from Jesus College, Oxford, discusses the economics of climate change and the low-carbon transition.

Freakonomics Podcast - Following the success of the book Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt now have a podcast which tackles or sorts of different topics and themes.

National Institute of Economic and Social Research is Britain's longest established independent research institute, founded in 1938. Their mission is to carry out research into the economic and social forces that affect people's lives and to improve the understanding of those forces and the ways in which policy can bring about change.

NRICH Maths for Economists - This webpage is a small collection of advanced-level material from the main NRICH pages which will be of use or interest to those hoping to study economics at university. They are straight mathematics problems but have an economic flavour or application.

Royal Economic Society - Founded in 1890, the Royal Economic Society is one of the oldest economic associations in the world.

Sample reading list - To help you decide whether Oxford's Economics & Management programme is right for you, this link provides a list of the kinds of articles and books that have previously been part of the first year of study.

Young Economist of the Year - this essay competition, organised by the Royal Economic Society and the Financial Times, is open to all year 12 and year 13 students studying for or A-Level, International Baccalaureate (IB) or Scottish Highers qualifications who either normally reside or are studying in the UK. Click on the link to find out more!

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Economics and Management Super Curricular Resources

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50 things that made the modern economy - From the BBC, Tim Harford tells the fascinating stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world.

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https://www.opendays.com/

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From learning more about your course of interest, to exploring our facilities and accommodation, our Undergraduate Open Days are a great opportunity for you to see how you can belong at BU.

Join us on Saturday 9 December, 10:00 - 16:00, and get a feel for our campuses and student life in Bournemouth. You'll discover how we'll get you career-ready and have the chance to:

Attend subject and key information talks
Tour our campuses

View accommodation

Take a bus tour of Bournemouth

Chat to lecturers, students and staff.

We can't wait to show you around.

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Opendays.com - the university and college open day directory

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Informed Choices helps you understand which subjects open up different degrees, particularly at Russell Group universities.

https://www.informedchoices.ac.uk/

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Choosing the right subjects to study post-16 is very important in helping you to get into university, particularly a Russell Group university.

If you don't know what degree subject you want to study, it's important to choose A Levels (or equivalent qualifications) that keep as many options open to you.

Whatever your situation, Informed Choices can give you the start you need in deciding what to do next.

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Choosing the right subjects to study post-16 is very important in helping you to get into university, particularly a Russell Group university. If you don't know what degree subject you want to study, it's important to choose A Levels (or equivalent qualifications) that keep as many options open to you.

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Prospects - what career options are there?

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Prospects - what career options are there?

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https://www.prospects.ac.uk/

Prospects provides information and guidance around graduate opportunities

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Prospects for graduate jobs, postgraduate study, advice about work experience, internship opportunities and graduate careers

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FutureLearn - widen your understanding of your chosen field

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FutureLearn - widen your understanding of your chosen field

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https://www.futurelearn.com/

Short courses from universities and specialist organisations - excellent preparation for higher education!

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Join millions of people learning on FutureLearn. Find online courses and degrees from leading universities or organisations and start learning online today.

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Informed Choices helps you understand which subjects open up different degrees, particularly at Russell Group universities.

https://www.informedchoices.ac.uk/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Choosing the right subjects to study post-16 is very important in helping you to get into university, particularly a Russell Group university.

If you don't know what degree subject you want to study, it's important to choose A Levels (or equivalent qualifications) that keep as many options open to you.

Whatever your situation, Informed Choices can give you the start you need in deciding what to do next.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Choosing the right subjects to study post-16 is very important in helping you to get into university, particularly a Russell Group university. If you don't know what degree subject you want to study, it's important to choose A Levels (or equivalent qualifications) that keep as many options open to you.

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https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/

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Find and Compare the Best University & Degree Courses – The Uni Guide

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Formerly part of the Which? University website. The Uni Guide is the free and independent way to search and compare UK degree courses and universities.

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https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/

Independent UK university rankings, course information and expert advice for every student

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Complete University Guide - University Rankings, Guides and Courses

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We help students around the world research degree courses and universities. Independent UK university league tables and rankings, overall and by subject.

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Strong applicants to competitive universities tend to have explored their chosen subject through wider reading outside the classroom, We call this sort of exploration ‘super-curricular’, as it builds on and enhances what you are studying in school.

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