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Events

To mark our centenary, the theme of the 2025/6 London Lecture Series, running from October 2025 to March 2026, is Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect. Distinguished philosophers have been invited to reflect on where their area of the discipline has got to over the last hundred years, and/or where it might go – or should go – over the next hundred.

See also our Annual Symposium, and City Lectures.

Recordings of each talk are available on TRIP’s YouTube Channel, where you can also see our archive of past events.

Forthcoming events

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Our Programmes

London Lectures 

Our flagship series of London Lectures deliver accessible evening talks from autumn to spring every year, with a different speaker each week.

Lectures from previous series are also available on the Royal Institute’s YouTube and podcast channels. Papers based on the Lectures are published in annual volumes by Cambridge University Press.

 

Annual City Lectures 

Our annual lectures, which are open to the public free of charge, attract some of the world’s leading philosophers to share their thoughts on a topic of their choice. The lectures are held once a year in Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh and London. Recent lecturers include Heather Widdows, C. Thi Nguyen and Linda Martin Alcoff.

Annual Symposium 

Written over 2000 years ago, Plato’s Symposium – literally, a ‘drinking together’ – is the first example in the Western world of what we would now call a round table discussion. Though we don’t serve drinks, each year we continue that tradition by bringing together four philosophers to discuss a topic of fundamental importance today. Symposia are open to the public free of charge. Find out more and watch discussions from previous years.

Philosophy Conferences 

We offer funding for UK philosophy departments, or other appropriate organisations, to organise a one day Philosophy Conference aimed primarily at the general public.

Previous Events

London lecture series · London Lectures · Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect: Centenary Lectures 2025-6

The You Turn 

This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Naomi Eilan. She offers an account of second person awareness, mutual I-you relations, and the essential link between second person awareness and ethics.

· Room 349, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
London lecture series · London Lectures · Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect: Centenary Lectures 2025-6

Empathy and Ethics: A Complicated Relation? 

This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Dr Rowan Williams. Is empathy required for ethical values? How we can hang on to a proper valuation of empathic understanding without sentimentality.

· Room 349, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
London lecture series · London Lectures · Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect: Centenary Lectures 2025-6

Avicennan and Cartesian Doubt 

This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Peter Adamson, who will argue that Avicennan and Cartesian “arguments from doubt” may actually be stronger than they seem.

· Room 349, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
London lecture series · London Lectures · Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect: Centenary Lectures 2025-6

The Most Permanent Interests of the Human Spirit 

This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor John Haldane. He looks back at philosophy since 1925, arguing for a kind of philosophical humanism that was more prominent a century ago than it is today.

· Room 349, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
London lecture series · London Lectures · Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect: Centenary Lectures 2025-6

Why philosophers need to think about pregnancy 

This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Fiona Woollard. She explores how philosophy can help us to understand pregnancy and improve the treatment of people who are pregnant.

· Room 349, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
London lecture series · London Lectures · Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect: Centenary Lectures 2025-6

What became of the public philosopher? 

This lecture in the series Philosophy in Retrospect and Prospect, is presented by Professor Regina Rini. She explores why we no longer need philosophers as all-purpose public sages.

· Room 349, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
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Local Partnerships

Discover events in your area hosted by our local partner organisations from across the UK. Events shared here promote access to the ideas, knowledge and experience of philosophy and are open to all.

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Manchester Metropolitan University: Franz Fanon and Stand Up to Racism  →

In this seminar, philosopher Komarine Romdenh-Romluc will speak about the life and work of Frantz Fanon, focusing on his analysis of race, colonialism, and social relations. This will be followed by an in-conversation discussion with Stand Up to Racism activist Nahella Ashraf, exploring the significance of Fanon’s ideas for contemporary anti-racist struggles.

Manchester Metropolitan University: Are Plants Persons?  →

At this pre-series event, Stella Sandford, Professor of Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Amber Donovan, an ecological activist and public philosopher, will discuss questions of plant life and agency. This event will be held at the vegan café/bar Hinterland (also known as Wholesome Junkies). ​ The discussion will take place as an in-conversation format and is one of two Human Sciences Seminar (HSS) events held during National Philosophy Fortnight (17–30 March).

The Philosopher's Yard  →

The Philosophers’ Yard Meetups are held in Birmingham. The Philosopher's Yard events are open to everyone—whether you’re a seasoned philosopher, completely new to the subject, or simply curious. Each event offers space to listen, learn, and share ideas in a welcoming and intellectually stimulating atmosphere. The next event on the 19th of March explores Health Inequalities. Registration is required.

Affective Atmospheres  →

A two-day conference, funded by TRIP, examining how atmospheres shape places and experience, drawing together philosophy with anthropology, geography, art, architecture and psychology.

Lancaster University  →

Prof Miriam Solomon (Temple)- "Stigma as an Actant in the History of Psychiatric Disorder" on Thursday 26th Feb, 6-7pm, Lecture Theatre, Storey Institute, Lancaster. Free and all welcome The slogan “end the stigma” has become pervasive in mental health contexts. It makes what sounds like a straightforward suggestion: if we can counter social prejudices about mental illness then we will be able to address mental illness more effectively and humanely. It conceptualizes stigma as unjustified and undesirable social attitudes towards particular classes of persons. Removing stigma is then like cleaning the dirt off of a painting, making it possible for us to see what “really” underlies without judgment. I will argue that this metaphor is misleading, and that stigma is entangled more deeply, shaping the actual categories of persons to whom stigma has been historically directed. Furthermore, stigma is a slippery beast that is often imperfectly managed by efforts to remove it that implicitly result in further stigmatization of some or all mental health conditions. It is not easy, and may not even be possible, to “end the stigma.” Stigma is not added to some neutral medical categories by a prejudiced society; rather, stigma was involved in making the categories themselves. Stigma is the most important social force shaping concepts of psychiatric disorder. It is helpful to know this in current debates about particular psychiatric disorders and the meaning of psychiatric disorder

University of Birmingham  →

As part of the Philosophy Fortnight, the Philosophy Department at the University of Birmingham has organised a screening of the film Ex Machina followed by a panel discussion with Michael Quinn (University of Glasgow), Henry Taylor (University of Birmingham) and Lucy Osler (University of Exeter). Booking is required.

Promote your Event 

Hosting a philosophy event in your area? We are happy to feature events that are not funded by the Royal Institute on our website calendar and in our newsletters to help spread the word.

Find out more →