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Sarah Bakewell

Humanly Possible: 700 years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope

Sarah Bakewell

Sunday, 2 April 2023

12:00pm

1 hour

Exeter College: Marquee

£7 - £12.50

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Bestselling writer Sarah Bakewell celebrates some of history’s finest humanist thinkers and actors and reflects on what being human means.

Bakewell looks at personalities and experiments in living from Erasmus to Esperanto, from anatomists to agnostics, from Christine de Pizan to Bertrand Russell, and from Voltaire to Zora Neale Hurston. She celebrates open-mindedness, optimism, freedom and the power of the here and now and says these qualities are just as needed today. Bakewell argues we should all be humanists to ensure a fairer, more tolerant and more humane world.

Bakewell is author of How to Live: a Life of Montaigne, winner of the Duff Cooper prize and the US National Book Critics Circle Prize, and of At the Existentialist Café.

FT Weekend Title partner University of Oxford Netflix European Union Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom Cultural Relations Platform Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme BBC World Service International radio partner Owen Mumford Supporter of programme of science and medicine and annual science and innovation award Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Spanish Embassy Event generously supported by the Spanish Embassy Cervantes Institute, London Republic of Panama Event generously supported by Republic of Panama Italian Embassy Supporter of Italian programme The Dorchester Hotels Collection Festival London hotel partner International Literary Properties Supporters of the festival green room Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller The Randolph Hotel by Graduate Hotels Sponsor of the festival crime fiction programme The Feathers Hotel Woodstock festival hotel John Roberts Lady Hatch Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture Emily Rose and James Marrow Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Miles Young Masumi and Jonathan Dobson George Warren Pank Koria CEO of Project People Lucian Hudson Carole and John Allen David Isaac Jill Dunsmore Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Anna Hunter Marlene Hauser Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival New College Worcester College Worcester College Lincoln College Lincoln College St Cross College St Cross College Trinity College Trinity College Pasture to Plate Compassion in World Farming Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner TORVA Books which change you, your mind, your world Transworld Doubleday Doubleday Bantam Jewish Book Week Partner of Jewish programme Foodbuy Thje Menu Partners Institute of Hospitality Project People Royal Academy of Arts British Academy Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily The Oxford Times Regional media partner BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Conference Oxford Felicity Bryan Associates CAV Oxford Critchleys Accountants to the festival The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford University Images Oxford University Images Oxford Brookes University Siren Communications Siren Communications - corporate consultants OX magazine Ox in a Box K T Bruce Photography K T Bruce Photography The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Chêne Bleu Wines of Provence La Leccia Flip through Flanders Literature Ireland Confucius Institute Pusey House James Currey Society The Wild Geese
 

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

FT Weekend Title partner University of Oxford Netflix European Union Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom Cultural Relations Platform Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme BBC World Service International radio partner Owen Mumford Supporter of programme of science and medicine and annual science and innovation award Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Spanish Embassy Event generously supported by the Spanish Embassy Cervantes Institute, London Republic of Panama Event generously supported by Republic of Panama Italian Embassy Supporter of Italian programme The Dorchester Hotels Collection Festival London hotel partner International Literary Properties Supporters of the festival green room Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller The Randolph Hotel by Graduate Hotels Sponsor of the festival crime fiction programme The Feathers Hotel Woodstock festival hotel John Roberts Lady Hatch Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture Emily Rose and James Marrow Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Miles Young Masumi and Jonathan Dobson George Warren Pank Koria CEO of Project People Lucian Hudson Carole and John Allen David Isaac Jill Dunsmore Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Anna Hunter Marlene Hauser Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival New College Worcester College Worcester College Lincoln College Lincoln College St Cross College St Cross College Trinity College Trinity College Pasture to Plate Compassion in World Farming Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner TORVA Books which change you, your mind, your world Transworld Doubleday Doubleday Bantam Jewish Book Week Partner of Jewish programme Foodbuy Thje Menu Partners Institute of Hospitality Project People Royal Academy of Arts British Academy Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily The Oxford Times Regional media partner BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Conference Oxford Felicity Bryan Associates CAV Oxford Critchleys Accountants to the festival The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford University Images Oxford University Images Oxford Brookes University Siren Communications Siren Communications - corporate consultants OX magazine Ox in a Box K T Bruce Photography K T Bruce Photography The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Chêne Bleu Wines of Provence La Leccia Flip through Flanders Literature Ireland Confucius Institute Pusey House James Currey Society The Wild Geese