AUTHORITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 530, 19 August 1949, Page 24

AUTHORITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL

| Bertrand Russell’s Reith Lectures

6¢ OTHING could be more appropriate than _ that the most serious effort \the BBC has yet made to use broadcasting in the field of _ thought should be linked with the | name of its founder," said Sir William | Haley, Director-General of the BBC, | when he announced the foundation of | the annual Reith Lectures. These | lectures were named in honour of the | BBC's first Director-General, Lord | Reith, "whose conception of what broad- | casting should strive after, of the ideals it should serve, and of the standards it ) should attain, is one of the great social acts of our time." Recordings of the first six lectures, | issued by the BBC Transcription Ser- | vice, have now been received by the | NZBS and will be broadcast over the | next few weeks on Sunday evenings ‘from 2¥C-the first at 10.0 p.m., on September 5, and weekly thereafter, . These lectures are given by Bertrand | Russell, who, although he is the third | Earl Russell, and a godson of the 19th | Century philosopher John Stuart Mill, ) prefers the simpler name. He has ) achieved world recognition not only for | work on the most abstruse problems of | mathematics and logic, but also as a _writer and speaker on philosophy, edu- _ cation, sociology and politics, who is able to express his thoughts in a lucid and lively manner. Mankind’s Happiness His theme, Authority and the Individual, is concerned with the forces that | shape society and which, by their interaction, affect the happiness of mankind. The fundamental problem which he examines in these lectures is how we can combine that degree of individual initiative which is necessary for progress, with the degree of social order that is necessary for survival, and his examination ranges from primitive man to the problems of the world to-day. .

In inaugurating the Reith Lectures as an annual event, the BBC has expressed the hope that they will become a valuable national institution as a stimulus to thought and a contribution to knowledge. Each year a speaker will be invited to undertake some study or original research and to give listeners the results of this work in a series of broadcasts. When selecting the speaker and the subject for the Reith Lectures, the BBC draws on the assistance of a small panel of advisers consisting of the Warden of All Souls College (Oxford), the Master of Trinity College (Cambridge), the President of the Royal Society, and the President of the British Academy, who serve ex officio on a committee headed by the chairman of the BBC Board of Governors. The titles of the six lectures are: "Social Cohesion and Human Nature," "Social Cohesion and Government," "The Role of Individuality," "The Conflict of Technique and Human Nature," "Control and Initiative-Their Respective Spheres," "Individual’ and Social Ethics." Second Lecture Series The second series of Reith Lectures, which will be broadcast by the BBC towards the end of this year, is to be ziven by Robert Birley, Educational Adviser to the Military Governor of the British Zone of Germany, and head-master-elect of Eton, Mr. Birley will assess the cultural and educational implications of Britain’s determination to identify itself with Western Europe, and he will draw largely upon his recent experiences in Germany. Before he went to Germany, he had had an exceptionally successful career as headmaster of Charterhouse, having not only a fine academic brain, but a flair for administration. History, particularly European medieval history, has always been his main study. He took first class honours in the subject at Oxford and won the Gladstone Memorial Essay Prize with a paper on "The English Jacobins of the 1790's."