THE REITH LECTURES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 482, 17 September 1948, Page 11

THE REITH LECTURES

| AST spring it was announced that ~ the BBC had established an annual series of lecture broadcasts, to be known as the Reith Lectures. The intention was that each year some acknqwledged authority — in ‘literature, philosophy, sociology, public affairs, or some other field-would be invited to undertake some original research and present his findings in four to seven broadcasts. It was hoped that by careful selection of speaker and subject the lecture-series would not only prove to be the peak

of the BBC’s effort in serious talks, but would also become a significant national institution. . News of the first lecturer and his subject suggests that the. series will be impressively inaugurated. The lecturer will be Earl Russell, better known to the world as Bertrand Russell, the philesopher and mathematician, and his subject will be Authority and the Individual, According to the BBC’s announcement Earl Russell will "examine the great theme which runs through history from the time of ancient Greece, and is raised in the world to-day in an acute form. The need for individual liberty to give sufficient play to initiative and to creative thought and action has to be considered against the need for social cohesion and law. Lack of balance can lead on the one hand to anarchy, but on the other to tyranny. The interplay of these two forces will be illustrated historically, leading to an analysis with direct reference to the world to-day." There will be.six lectures in the first Reith series, and each will last thirty minutes.