The RSA Blog

Break-throughs in brain science

Blog

18 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

Elizabeth Gould’s talk here last night was succour for those who yearn to return to a time when the RSA’s events were more expertise and less opinion. We had asked Elizabeth, the winner of the 2009 RSA Benjamin Franklin Medal and the scientist who proved that the adult mammal brain generates new neurons, to focus on the implications of her work for society. She did a bit of this in the Q and A and in a short interview I did with her (see below), but like many scientists she preferred to stick to the facts in her talk.

'The progressive consensus' - and me, me, me ....

Blog

17 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

Back to Number Ten this morning to discuss ‘the progressive consensus’. With only an hour for discussion, four presentations and 30 very clever people (plus me) round the table it was hardly surprising that the conversation comprised little more than the identification of a list of issues. But looking at what I found the most interesting points there is a line of connection.

Inequality and the realignment of the right

Blog

06 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

This blog repeats an argument I made a couple of weeks ago, but, for once, the more I hear, the more sure I am...

Jonah Lehrer and the social brain

Blog

05 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

I am even more excited than usual about our forthcoming lecture programme. In two weeks we award the RSA Benjamin Franklin Medal to Elizabeth Gould, the discoverer of neurogenesis, the process by which the brain generates new neurons.   Professor Gould is one of the world’s leading neuroscientists but tonight we have a world leading populariser of research on the brain and behaviour: Jonah Lehrer. As well as his two fantastic books, ‘Proust was a neuroscientist’ and ‘The decisive moment’ (the latter of which he is in town to publicise) Lehrer has his own website and blog, The Frontal Cortex, and is editor at large of SEED magazine.

Just who do we think we are?

Blog

05 Mar 2009

Last night I had dinner with tonight’s speaker at the RSA, Jonah Lehrer (shameless namedropping alert). First off let me say he is a very friendly and humble guy, but that this persona belies a prodigious, keen and subtle intellect. That’s a rare combination of characteristics in a person and one can see it at work in Jonah’s writings: they are accessible but have depth; they are scientific without being baffling to the layperson; and they are philosophical without being haughty or pretentious.

It's good to talk

Blog

24 Feb 2009

Matthew Taylor

One of my minor achievements in politics was having the idea of the Big Conversation. This was an attempt by the Labour Party to reconnect with its supporters in the wake of the divisive decision to invade Iraq. I remember writing a chunk of text for Tony Blair’s conference speech calling for a national debate over future policy and being both flattered and terrified when he delivered it verbatim.

It does what it says on the label

Blog

13 Feb 2009

Matthew Taylor

Reading Jonathan Haidt’s excellent book ‘The Happiness Hypothesis’ I came across a reference to James Hunter’s ‘The death of character’, published in 2000. Haidt describes Hunter’s thesis: as America moved in the twentieth century from being a nation of producers to being a nation of consumers it replaced the intrinsically moral idea of ‘character’ in favour of the amoral term ‘personality’.

David, Hillary and the power of face to face

Blog

04 Feb 2009

Matthew Taylor

By all accounts the meeting between David Miliband and Hillary Clinton went very well. The foundations for a strong interpersonal working relationship may be affection and respect, shared values and purpose, or a hard headed sense of mutual dependence. It looks like Miliband and Clinton have all three.

Can humans respond to crisis? More or less...

Blog

03 Feb 2009

Matthew Taylor

The economic crisis is an opportunity to think afresh about the good society. To learn from this disaster and to avoid the next crisis means not just deciding what we think but understanding how we think.