The 2019 colloquium will be held between 8-13 December at the 5-star Alion Hotel, Ayia Napa, where participants will enjoy fully-catered accommodation.
The theme
Over six days of moderated round-table discussion and related activities, we will explore the question of the good society: which principles should govern our co-existence so as to achieve justice, prosperity, and sustainability? This is broken down to sub-questions such as how the pursuit of self-interest can be reconciled with living in a community; which scheme of distribution of resources, if any, is fair and acceptable by all; the nature and forms of injustice and oppression; the freedom to dissent; the non-enforceable duties that we are subject to in our everyday lives if a just society is to be sustained.
The people
The colloquium will bring together up to 20 participants, leading figures in business, government, civil society associations, and the arts. Discussions will be moderated by Dr Jennifer Webb, who served as a senior moderator of the Cranlana Programme for ten years.
The proceedings
The morning and early afternoon sessions will be devoted to in-depth discussions of seminal, representative texts from across the history of philosophy and literature (from John Rawls to Ursula Le Guin and from Plato to Karl Marx). The readings will be circulated in plenty of time before the colloquium and participants will be expected to have read them in advance. This requires some effort (approximately 30 hours altogether) but it is both beneficial for participants and necessary for the smooth and productive running of the colloquium. In the late afternoon attendees will have the chance to explore in smaller groups real world issues in light of the readings and earlier discussions.
Of course, discussion will not be confined to the sessions but will spill over, in a much more informal and relaxed way, to the common meals and breaks.
Enrolment
Enrolment for the 2019 colloquium is now open. Please download the enrolment form here.
The full programme of the colloquium will be made available to confirmed participants.