Through our chance encounter in Mexico and resulting friendship with philosophers Alan Montefiore and Catherine Audard, I would occasionally be invited to a high falutin’ philosophical event.
This was one such.
A dinner with guest speaker David Willetts, known as “Two Brains” in political circles, apparently. Even his Wikipedia entry says so… in at least two places at the time of writing.
It was a gathering of brainy folk, of course; those European philosophers were a very interesting and lively bunch over dinner.
The topic, inter-generational divides, was a hot topic at that time and Willetts had written a book about it, which he was promoting at the time:
Click above or here for an Amazon link (other outlets are available) to the book.
I bought a copy the day after the dinner. I even pretty much read the book. It’s main premise was that the baby boomer generation had stolen much from the future of the coming generation or two.
Strangely, once in government, he went on to be the Universities minister who advocated upping the university tuition fees, which seems strangely at odds with the main premise of his book, but there you are. Two Brains is a Baron at the time of writing (October 2017) and Chair of the Resolution Foundation.
Anyway, as always with these Forum For European Philosophy dinners, the food was good, the company around the table most impressive and it was always a pleasure to spend time with Alan and Catherine.