The Reith Lectures

David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the third lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'.In this lecture entitled 'Needs, Centralism & Autarchy', David Henderson highlights the contrast between Do-It-Yourself Economics (DIYE) and Orthodox Economics. He reflects on how economic policies might affect security, trade, markets and stocks. Using the example of British Nuclear Power, he evaluates how centralism and essentialism can affect situations at a national level.

David Henderson, head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the second lecture in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'.In this lecture entitled 'Soap Opera in High Places', David Henderson considers the leading elements of Do-It-Yourself Economics (DIYE) and explores how it differs from ideas that are widely accepted by trained economists. He asks, what are the implications of these different thoughts for economic policy? Drawing from his life experiences he serves to emphasise the point that DIYE has been, and continues to be, significant to people who are themselves influential. He shows that individual willingness to pay should be the main test of how resources are used.

David Henderson, Head of the Economics and Statistics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the influence of economic ideas on policy. He gives the first of five lectures in his series entitled 'Innocence and Design'.In this lecture entitled 'The Power of Do-It-Yourself Economics', David Henderson explores the phenomenon of economic DIY. Explained as the unprofessional or layman's view of finances, he describes how it can contradict with the professional views of economics. Using his own experience as a British civil servant, he questions both economic ideals.

In the final lecture of his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, examines the evidence for and against the existence of free will. In this lecture entitled 'The Freedom of the Will' Professor Searle attempts to explain why human beings stubbornly believe in their own freedom of action and debates the philosophy of free will. He concludes his Reith Lectures trying to characterise the relationship between the perceptions of self and the world around us.

In his fifth Reith Lecture from his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, considers the discipline of human behavioural science. In this lecture entitled 'A Changing Reality', Professor Searle explores the limits to the insights that we can expect from a 'science' of human behaviour. He questions the success of the natural sciences. Why have they not given us more information about human behaviour? What makes the subject so different to sciences like physics and chemistry?

In his fourth Reith Lecture from his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, analyses the structure of human actions. In this lecture entitled 'Walk to Patagonia', Professor Searle draws together the mental and physical aspects to show how our mental activities can produce our behaviour. Can our ability to choose our movements be what separates us from machines? Professor Searle seeks to show how the structure of an action relates to the explanation of it.

In the third Reith Lecture from his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, explores the discipline of cognitive science.In this lecture entitled 'Grandmother Knew Best', Professor John Searle investigates how and why scientists are developing the field of cognitive science. Exploring how the human brain processes information in order to do the action of thinking, John Searle links back to his previous lectures to debate the differences between human thought and computerised artificial intelligence.

In the second Reith Lecture of his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, considers artificial intelligence. He debates whether scientists could create a digital computer which has its own thoughts.In this lecture entitled 'Beer Cans and Meat Machines', Professor Searle compares the relationship of the mind and the brain to that of computer programme software to computer hardware. But can a man-made machine ever think like a human?

In the first Reith Lecture of his series 'Minds, Brains and Science', John Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, examines the so-called 'mind body problem'. Searle uses this paradox of the conscious mind verses the scientific brain to explore our understanding of the world.In this lecture entitled 'A Froth on Reality', Professor Searle considers how humans think of themselves as cognisant, free, rational beings but science tells us we are a chance occurrence, created in a world that consists entirely of mindless physical particles. From this viewpoint Professor Searle explores the question how can an essentially meaningless world contain meaning?

Former Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury, Sir Douglas Wass explores the concept of authority in his series 'Government and the Governed'.In his final lecture entitled 'Participation - the Sole Bond', Sir Douglas Wass concludes his discussion about responsive and effective governments with a suggestion for a single, permanent and more autonomous Royal Commission. He argues that this would be one way to promote a more open, participatory democracy.