We all want to be reasonable and be seen to be reasonable. Yet reason has been employed to defend everything from white supremacy to the divine right of kings and tyrants. And critics claim it is still used as a rhetorical front for the powerful. So it’s unclear how to use rationality that avoids cloaking interests and prejudices in a veil of respectability. Studies show we use reason to look for evidence to confirm beliefs twice as often as to challenge them. Moreover, experiments show that mathematicians and scientists, those at the forefront of reason, are often just as irrational as everyone else about many beliefs.

Should we conclude that rationality is a marketing exercise to appear convincing? Should we place more emphasis on wisdom, emotion and intuition? Or is reason a key tool in the fight against prejudice and which we abandon at great risk to ourselves and our culture?

Join us for an unmissable live debate, interview & solo talk with our experts as they take on one of the most urgent and provocative questions of our time. This exclusive interactive event offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with a leading intellectual voices, challenge your assumptions, and be part of a global conversation that interrogates the limits - and power - of reason.