Evening events, Talks & lectures, History

Tonight: 'The Referendum of 1997: The Settled Will of the Scottish People?' by Brian Taylor of BBC Scotland.

The first ever Atlantic Cable, featuring talks by Dr Michael Morris (Glasgow University), Dr Michael Brown (University of Aberdeen); music from Joe Black, Siobhan Wilson, and Jill O'Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop); and video work from artist Annie Crabtree (Picture Window).

Tonight, the question is 'What Is Gender?' Stella Sandford (Reader in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University and member of the Radical Philosophy editorial collective) addresses the 'gender/sex' divide, looking at whether or not there is a meaningful difference between 'masculine and feminine' and 'male and female'.

This year's lecture is 'The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity', about the decline of violence in what are often perceived be highly violent times. Given by Prof Steven Pinker of Harvard University, who studies cognition and language.

Part of Leith Festival.

Part of Leith Festival.

Part of Leith Festival.

Short film roulette.

Part of Borders Book Festival.

Part of Leith Festival.

Part of Leith Festival.

Part of Borders Book Festival.

Closing night.

Part of St Magnus International Festival.

Tonight, the question is 'What sort of things are numbers?' Oxford lecturer Alexander Paseau tackles the abstract concept, determining whether numbers are subjective products of mental processes or if they in fact belong to a 'separate realm of ideal existence', as Plato believed.