The next Big Ideas event will be on Tuesday 29 July 2008. As usual, we’ll meet in the upstairs room of the Wheatsheaf pub in central London (nearest tube Tottenham Court Road). Doors open at 7:30 and we’ll aim to kick off at 8.

Does “modern” just mean “contemporary” or “recent”, or is it more like […]

Yes, we said we’d get organised this year, and so we have. The following is a preview of the Big Ideas schedule for the rest of 2008. We’re very excited about this — we have some really excellent speakers lined up and the whole programme will, we think, build into something really substantial.

On 9 June 2008, four Big Ideas regulars — Danny Birchall, Rich Cochrane, Nathan Charlton and Robert Kingham — gathered at the Crosse Keys pub in the ancient City of London to discuss London Nationalism. Does it make sense to talk about a city expressing a “nationalism” over and above its supposed “identity”?

One of the things mathematicians soon learn to look for when they meet a new mathematical object is its “subobjects”, which are parts of the object that have the same type of structure as the whole thing. In our case those are “subgroups”, which are subsets of a group that are, themselves, groups.

What criteria apply to an institution or individual to make them English? Does it involve a love of tea and fair play, an general feeling that Scots’ grievances are largely baseless or just English parentage? Is it ever possible to nail this stuff down?

Welcome to the 70^th edition of the Philosophers’ Carnival, a fortnightly round-up of quality philosophical posts from the blogs of the world. It seems to have been a busy two weeks, so hopefully there’s something here for everyone; apologies to those who didn’t make it in.

Columnist Charlie Brooker recently stirred up this familiar hornets’ nest by writing a piece about censorship of computer games, inspiring a slew of comments comparing the medium to films and novels. Are modern computer games a valid art form, and should Grand Theft Auto IV be treated just like a painting or a symphony?

In the previous instalment we saw some very “mathematical” examples of groups, but group theory also has an important geometrical aspect. We’ll take a look at that before we get into the more abstract material of group theory proper.

If we study logic, we begin by learning that truth is a black or white matter. In particular we know that either a given claim is true or it isn’t; it can’t be both and it can’t be neither.

I was reminded of supertasks the other day and thought they’re interesting enough for a post, particularly as an argument that they’re impossible uses a similar tactic to some arguments against time travel and other speculative activities.