Come along to The Castle Hotel (66 Oldham St, Manchester M4 1LE) from 7pm. Come along for a bite of food, a chance to socialise and a talk about the history and sounds of Manchester…
Manchester Sound(s); Silent Notes From the Past by Dominique Tessier
Read more…
In the writings of Gottfried Leibniz can be found many elements relating to the possibility of a universal language. Specifically he was working on a constructed language as a concept which would gradually come to replace that of rationalized Latin as the natural basis for a projected universal language. Leibniz conceived of a ‘characteristica universalis’, an “algebra” capable of expressing all conceptual thought. This kind of algebra would include rules for symbolic manipulation, which he called a calculus ratiocinator. Read more…
The Hedge Schools came about as a direct result of the suppression of schooling in Ireland. This history speaks of the innate need of humans to share and learn, and how central a part of social fabric it is. This history also speaks of the dark side of dominating powers to withhold knowledge and the means of mutually improvement from whole populations to deliberately undermine people and their chances to live rich full lives. Read more…
Visible speech or writing is one of humankind’s greatest inventions. Found in clay tablets from ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia and slightly later tablets from neighboring Iran (ancient Elam) – a partially deciphered script known as proto-Elamite details lists of raw materials and products, such as barley and beer, lists of laborers, and their tasks, lists of fields and their owners, the income and outgoings of temples etc. All calculations concerning production levels, delivery dates, locations, payments and debts. Read more…
James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon, set in the mountains of Tibet, created the fictional ‘Shangri-La’ – a place of the spirit, seemingly outside time, where people lived long lives in a fastness far removed from a world beset by war. For most visitors and many Scots, the Highlands of Scotland – the Gaidhealtachd – seem to suggest a similar refuge. And today, the Gaidhealtachd – like Shangri-La – is for the most part a safe place. You won’t see anyone remotely like William Wallace and his blue-painted, half-naked clansmen, pursuing vengeance across the mountainsides, as portrayed in films like Braveheart.
This might actually be a relief.
Come along to The Castle Hotel at 7pm to listen to Ursula’s talk. Share a crust of bread, and learn what she has to share…
On the 29th October 2015, Donald Carrick gave the third of three talks on the life and legacies of Ghengis Khan. Donald tells us: Stories are everything. Many stories are influenced by history, but could it be that history itself is shaped by stories, even fictional ones? Can we honestly say only fact matters in any historical narrative? Is the past set in stone or is it a fluid entity like the future? Read more…
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources. It involves the analysis of literary texts, written records, where they have come from, who wrote them, and what meaning they hold. The philological community has differing beliefs as to many aspects of the history of language, and often these differences have given rise to heated debates. The history of language can also be viewed as involving a debate about the meaning of things which have been written that have shaped whole cultures and ultimately the way we have come to behave in certain contexts. Read more…