TALKS: SYDNEY IDEAS

Thinking about public lectures, I find myself closing my eyes and imagining the smell of leather books, wide green lawns and twinkly eyed lecturers with loosened ties. I long to hark back to the days of great public debate, when students rioted with style and cafes were full of revolutionaries. For those of you similarly afflicted with a deep love of old books and big ideas, then Sydney University’s 2009 Sydney Ideas lecture series is bound to have your glasses all steamed up before you can say ‘champagne socialists’. Promising lectures on intellectual giants in the ilk of Beethoven, Confucius and Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of feminism, the talks are snappy 45 minute introductions to some of the biggest ideas that have shaped society’s institutions and beliefs. Whether you are an avid philosopher or just want to stir up the old learning juices once in a while, get yourself down to Sydney University’s sprawling campus and check them out. The lectures run every Wednesday night from 6.30 to 8 until Confucius bids us farewell.

Until Oct 21, Seymour Theatre Centre, cnr City & Cleveland St, $15-20, 9351 7940 or seymour.usyd.edu.au/boxoffice/