ISOS 2012

Next Wednesday (25th April) the ASI will be holding its next Independent Seminar for the Open Society (ISOS) in Westminster. The one-day conference is aimed at sixth-form students and undergraduates with an interest in politics and economics. Named for philosopher Karl Popper’s book ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’, ISOS explores the principles and practicalities of an open, free and tolerant society.

Political views are formed from an early age and it’s a sad fact that far too few people come across free market and classical liberal ideas during their formative years. However we at the ASI are pretty confident that classical liberal ideas are very appealing to young people because they emphasise individualism, peace and mutually beneficial exchange. ISOS is just part of our work to inspire young people with the ideas of liberty and free markets.

On Wednesday we will have Dr Tim Evans talking on the morality of markets and Dr Madsen Pirie giving a short talk, based on his ‘Economics is fun’ videos, on economics for real people. Chris Snowdon, author of our cigarette plain packaging report, will be lecturing on prohibition and its discontents and Tony Gilland will be talking on the right to be offensive. The day will finish with a debate between Jamie Whyte and Nic Marks on whether it is the role of government to make people happy.

There are still some places available for sixth formers and undergraduates so please email isos@old.adamsmith.org if you would like to attend. Full details on the conference are here: http://www.old.adamsmith.org/events

For those of you who don’t fall into that bracket, but are interested to find out more about our work with young people or interested to support our student work, do feel free to email us!