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2025 Atkins Public Lecture

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Global Change Institute Atrium (Building 20)
Saint Lucia QLD, Australia
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Wed, 3 Sep, 5pm - 7:15pm AEST

Event description

What’s Really Wrong with Fake News? A Spinozist Perspective

Presented by Emeritus Professor Susan James


About the Atkins Public Lecture

Thank you to Dr John Atkins for his generous funding of the Atkins Visiting Professorship since 2014. 
About the lecture 

The University of Queensland's School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry invites you to join us for the 2025 Atkins Public Lecture delivered by Emeritus Professor Susan James. 


Fake news is nothing new.  For many generations, philosophers have discussed it and asked themselves what’s wrong with it.  In this lecture I’ll consider whether their conclusions can deepen our own understanding of its dangers.  Focusing on the work of one insightful opponent of fake news, the seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher Benedict de Spinoza, I’ll explore his view that it undermines our attachment to truthfulness.  This is its most harmful effect, and it has radical political implications. What might they mean for us?

About the presenter 

Susan James did her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge.  She has taught at the Universities of Connecticut, Cambridge and London and held visiting positions in Australia, Europe and the United States.  Her research focuses on three overlapping areas - the history of early modern European philosophy, social and political philosophy and feminist philosophy - concentrating particularly on the ideas of Margaret Cavendish and Benedict de Spinoza. 

These interests are reflected in some of her publications, including Margaret Cavendish: Political Writings; Passion and Action: The Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy; Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion and Politics; The Theologico-Political Treatise; and Spinoza on Learning to Live Together.

Susan James is a Fellow of the British Academy and Chair of the British Society for the History of Philosophy.

Event details 

Date: Wednesday 3 September 2025

Time: 5–6:15pm for light refreshments. Followed by the lecture from 6:15pm–7:15pm.  

Venue: The Terrace Room (Level 6), Sir Llew Edwards Building (14), UQ

RSVP: Friday 25 July 2025

Enquiries

engagement@hass.uq.edu.au


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Global Change Institute Atrium (Building 20)
Saint Lucia QLD, Australia