A fascinating evening with celebrated philosopher, Professor A C Grayling

Six of our finest Lower Sixth philosophers attended an evening with well-renowned and celebrated philosopher, A C Grayling (who for many would be considered the Beyoncé of philosophers, but instead of golden curls, he rocked an old-school, vintage sweep of white, Einstein-esque hair) winner of the Bertrand Russell Prize in 2015.

Our first obstacle of the night was navigating London transport to make the 6pm start; we took a ‘carpe diem’ approach which Grayling himself would have been proud of and, on a whim, we switched lines.

What followed was definitely worth the journey as Grayling, a man who seemed to have an endless knowledge of almost everything, embarked on an anecdote-filled talk on why society is so much better off packed with the likes of literature, humanities, the arts and philosophy graduates.

With the evening in full flow, the likes of Hume, Déscartes, Plato and many more were discussed and debated, with Grayling even telling us the fascinating story of René Déscartes’ infamous mind/body problem, and how he ended up with his head and body being buried in separate places and, so ironically, in both life and death his mind and body remained apart.

An already enlightening talk was rounded off with Grayling telling us that each day is a new life, and that we really should explore the intricacies of experience as it would be so much more fulfilling if we increased our knowledge of, well, everything. His magic secret: read more!

Adam Spencer Lower Sixth Form student